


LIBRA RY^ OF CONG RESS, 

Chap.]5! Copyright No._ 

Shelf. 0 ^ 

- u 


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
































■ [ 



















“now! up! up, she comes!” (p. io.) 




















LINKS OF GOLD 


jP 


S' 


HARRIET A. CHEEVER 


Author of “ St. Rockwells' Little Brother “ Little Jollity's 
Christmasetc. 


\ 


BOSTON 


'%tP 20119? 




ftbe pilQdm press 

CHICAGO 

L K 







Copyright, 1897 
By J. H. Tewksbury 





CONTENTS 


CHAPTER p AGK 

I. AN ESCAPE. 5 

II. VERONA ROADS. 21 

III. DISCUSSION AND DECISIONS. 32 

IV. HOW THEY SETTLED IT. 45 

V. JACK NONPLUSSED. 57 

VI. ONE TUESDAY EVENING. 72 

VII. THE RESCUE OF THE DOLLS. 9O 

VIII. INVITATIONS. 106 

IX. PREPARATIONS. I23 

X. THE SALE... I 38 

XI. THE SALE CONTINUED. I 54 

XII. AT THE HOSPITAL.". 1 7 1 

XIII. “IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT ”. I 89 

XIV. LINKS FROM A FORGE UNSEEN. 205 

XV. FIREMEN’S DAY.„. 2 20 

XVI. A LITTLE TENDER LINK. 237 

XVII. “PRAY, GIRL, PRAY ! ” . . .. 255 

XVIII. THE TALK WITH PAPA. 27I 

xix. “come” . 287 

XX. JOINING THE LINKS.. . . . ,. 298 































LINKS OF GOLD 


CHAPTER I 

AN ESCAPE 

“ Whew ! did you hear that, Jack ? ” 

“ Yes, but I did n’t want to notice it.” 

“ Let’s turn back.” 

“ I’d rather not.” 

“ Aha, my boy ! this threatens not to be 
altogether a matter of choice. I Ve an ink¬ 
ling of a suspicion that we he in a fix, so to 
speak.” 

Two fine specimens of robust young man¬ 
hood were taking long, even strides across 
the ice on Sky Pond. With arms stretched 
at full length, crossed, and a hand resting 
on the shoulder of his companion, Jack Lor- 
5 



6 


LINKS OF GOLD 


raine and Arthur Fredricks had skimmed 
like sea birds half-way across the pond, 
which was nearly square in its unusual 
shape. The best track for the skater lay 
directly in the centre of the treacherous 
stream. 

“ I never knew a warmer January sun,” 
observed Arthur, removing his closely fit¬ 
ting cap and wiping the perspiration from 
his face. “ I suppose we should have been 
warned and not have come out so far. We 
must exercise some diplomacy, my boy, in 
picking our way back.” 

a We ’re both ducks at swimming.” 

“Yes, but that does n’t signify, come to 
meeting an ice hole.” 

“ No, I suppose not.” 

While talking, the young men were cau¬ 
tiously curveting about, feeling surprised 
at the crackling all around them. 

“ Question is,” began Jack Lorraine with 
a smiling, unconcerned air, “ whether we’d 
better keep on to the farther end, then take 


AN ESCAPE 


7 


the long walk home, or turn about and skate 
back the way we came.” 

u What’s that I see shining ahead ? ” 
asked Jack. 

“ Water, unmistakably water on ice,” 
answered Arthur. 

“ How far out are we? nearly two miles, 
is n’t it ? ” asked Jack again. 

“Yes, it would be far nearer to keep on, 
if possible, but I see that is out of the ques¬ 
tion. Let’s make for the shore as we came.” 

Back they started, going singly this time. 
Some strong undercurrent, warmed by the 
many open spaces near the banks, must have 
wrought a singularly speedy change in the 
condition of the ice, for it seemed as though 
at nearly every stroke the creak and strain 
of a “ breaking up ” sounded in the ears of 
the expert skaters who skimmed lightly 
along. 

“ I never remember hearing or reading of 
ice giving way in this sudden manner,” said 
Arthur Fredricks, “ but I suppose we should 


LINKS OF GOLD 


have taken warning from the open condition 
of the pond at the sides and by this roasting 
sun and also by the deserted look of the 
skating ground.” 

“ Oh, we he all right, I guess,” said the 
off-hand Jack. “ I felt a creak or two when 
we first struck out, but I didn’t suspect 
that things were actually shaky until that 
tremble came underneath us all at once, but 
I think now—O grandfather! ” 

Jack’s long length went down with a crash. 
The ice, treacherous indeed, far beyond 
their knowledge, had given away in one 
weak spot and Jack’s leg had slipped through 
the aperture, which widened with incredible 
swiftness as he struggled to extricate him¬ 
self. 

“ Keep off! keep off, I say! ” he cried as 
Arthur cautiously crept near to offer ready 
assistance. “ If I can ’t scramble out by my¬ 
self, there ’s no use for us both to go down. 
Now then! ” 

Jack gave a gigantic pull, and had nearly 


AN ESCAPE 


9 


drawn liimself out when he slipped hack 
again, an ominous crack resounding all 
about him as he again partly disappeared. 

“ It’s so outrageously slippery,” he called, 
“ I can ’t get the least purchase on anything 
to hold on to.” 

“ I ’m going to lie down flat and creep 
towards yon,” said Arthur. “ I do n’t pro¬ 
pose to go home alone.” 

“ For goodness’ sake keep off! ” cried 
Jack; and his panting voice gave Arthur a 
fresh idea of his friend’s peril. “I’m going 
to make another lunge and want the whole 
pond to myself for it. Now then; up I 
come! ” 

Alas, no ! down he went, slipping farther 
as another cracking sound accompanied the 
fresh failure. 

Arthur Fredricks pulled off his overcoat, 
then hastily pulled off also his long cardigan 
jacket. Down he lay flat, creeping slowly 
toward Jack, the jacket in his hand. 

“ Now, my hearty,” he said softly, “ I 


IO 


LINKS OF GOLD 


do n’t feel anything but the merest bend as 
I crawl in this fashion. Just you clutch the 
other end of this jacket and give a quick 
leap upward and I think we ’ll land you.” 

Jack made no demur. The situation was 
far more serious than he had imagined it 
likely to become. Arthur crawled along on 
what appeared the firmest part and tossed 
ahead the stout woollen jacket. Jack seized 
the other end. “Now! up — up — she 
comes! ” And sure enough, Jack’s long 
length was again out of the water. 

“ Cautious there ! ” warned Arthur as the 
ice seemed ready to settle and separate in 
other places. “ I ’ll crawl backwards, and 
you keep hold of the jacket till we reach 
the spot where I left my overcoat; it is 
comparatively firm there.” 

Once on their feet again, the young men 
divested themselves of skates and proceeded 
to feel their way along. This was much 
the safest way, as the caution with which 
they went enabled them to avoid the more 


AN ESCAPE 


II 


dangerous places. On nearing the shore at 
last, they concluded not to say anything 
about the peril encountered. But just as 
they left the pond, Mr. Hoostan came along 
—a man who at times indulged altogether 
too freely in strong drinks. 

“ Was you in the pond, Mr. Jack?” he 
asked, looking hard at Jack’s rather pale 
face and suspiciously wet trousers. 

“ Oh, I only made a slip and got my legs 
pretty wet,” Jack replied indifferently. 
But at the saloon Mr. Hoostan told an exag¬ 
gerated story about Jack Lorraine’s having 
been in Sky Pond and, he guessed, nearly 
drowned. So it came to pass that Dr. Lor¬ 
raine heard the news before finishing his 
round of visits that afternoon, and as so 
much of the adventure had leaked out, both 
Jack and Arthur truthfully told the facts. 

“ My! ” said a rough, kind-hearted man 
whose unfortunate propensity had also 
brought him to the place where Mr. Hoostan 
was telling more than he knew. “ My ! but 


12 


LINKS OF GOLD 


would n’t there ’a’ ben mournin’ at the 
Roads if Dr. Lorraine’s only son and Mr. 
Fredricks’ only son — a mighty smart law¬ 
yer is Squire Fredricks — had been a-lay- 
ing dead to-night, a-drownded at Sky Pond ! ” 

“ O girls, come into this house, do ! ” 

A breezy, handsome girl of about eighteen, 
with flying, silky hair and a vivacious 
manner, had hastily thrown open the front 
door of an imposing-looking mansion and 
called impetuously to a group of four young 
girls of her own age who had happened to 
meet on the sidewalk. 

“ Dares n’t ” — from Isabel Trenton, a 
laughing girl, grown suddenly sober. 
“ Do n’t know as it would be safe. What’s 
the excitement ? ” 

“ Come right in this minute, every one of 
you. I’ve struck an entirely new idea and 
am afraid my whole brood of magnificent 
intentions will fly away unless I relieve 
myself of them soon.” 


AN ESCAPE 


I 3 


“ Oh, bless us, girls, let’s hurry ! ” And 
pell-mell, at Addie Fredricks’ invitation, the 
four rushed up the stone steps, jostling and 
crowding each other in their pretended haste. 

“ O-oh ! ” cried Susie Follansbee, “ yon 
stepped right on my foot! ” And she 
hobbled into the library with brows drawn 
together while looking at Rebecca Lorraine. 

“ Sorry, Susie,” said Rebecca, “ but you 
know, dear, I had to put my foot down some¬ 
where. Still,” she added soothingly, “ I 
should have known better than to expect I 
could find room for my feet on the upper 
step when yon got there first.” 

“ Please respect the size another time,” 
said Susie, her face still askew with the 
aching foot. 

“ Nobody notices me,” began Addie Fred¬ 
ricks, pensively tucked in the corner holding 
a hand over one eye. “ Miss Isabel Trenton 
over there serenely looking at paintings 
nearly blinded me whisking the fringe of 
her cape right and left,” 


14 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ Did I, Addie ? ” And Isabel, always 
merry-hearted, rocked back and forth in a 
great velvet-cushioned willow chair and gave 
way to a round peal of laughter. 

“ Perhaps you summoned us, Pauline Van 
Werter, for the purpose of establishing an 
impromptu hospital,” dryly remarked Re¬ 
becca ; “ if so, I think you may plume your¬ 
self on having achieved a great success.” 

“ Well, are yon ready to hear my plans ? ” 
asked Pauline, who had been laughingly 
regarding her chatty friends. 

“ Oh, come now, it’s only fair we let 
Poppy state her magnificent intentions,” 
said Isabel, “ or she may forget them as she 
hinted.” 

“ It ’s all simply enough told,” began 
Pauline flushing a little, “ but honestly, 
girls, I ’ru tired of not being of any particu¬ 
lar use in the world. And Dr. Compton’s 
sermon Sunday almost scared me. I know 
papa gives pretty nearly what they ask for 
at the church in charity, but when Dr. 


AN ESCAPE 


*5 


Compton spoke of the final account that 
favored ones in this world must render some 
day, it sort of woke me up. Then when 
Jack Lorraine had that struggle on the ice, 
I thought what a little thing might take life 
away. So I want to do a little good if I 
can, and I read in one of papa’s papers 
about a missionary in one of the Comoro 
Islands, off Mozambique, in Africa, you re¬ 
member, who called for funds towards build¬ 
ing a chapel there. And my idea was, that 
if we all got together and planned for a fair 
or a sale, some time in March, perhaps, we 
might be able to help him. Now, what do 
you say ? ” 

u Is n’t the place rather far off ? ” asked 
Isabel, struggling not to smile. 

“ Oh, that need n’t make any difference; 
papa will tell me how to open a correspond¬ 
ence with the missionary when we get 
ready.” 

“Well,” chimed in Rebecca, who for her 
age was gifted with an extra amount of good 


16 LINKS OF GOLD 

sense, “ we ’ll surely help in any good work 
you want to start, then we can talk over 
what had really better be done; ” and she 
darted a look full of warning at Isabel. 

“ Yes, indeed, we ’ll all help,” began 
Susie, cautiously, for she had caught Re¬ 
becca’s look of warning at Isabel’s ques¬ 
tion ; “ but as usual,” she continued, “ a 
good deal will have to depend upon the 
twins.” 

They all breezed out at this, laughing 
and chatting and asking what new “ dread¬ 
fulness ” had developed with that interest¬ 
ing pair. But Susie only shook her golden- 
brown head, and declared there was nothing 
new, only the same story of a couple of the 
most incorrigible little monkeys imaginable, 
forever up to all the mischief they could 
think of, and constantly claiming her atten¬ 
tion and care. 

“ Where should we hold the fair ?” asked 
Addie. 

“ Right here,” answered Pauline. “ Papa 


AN ESCAPE 


*7 

says I might put cotton coverings over the 
carpets in this room and in the parlor. 
Much of the furniture could be carried up¬ 
stairs, the statuary set back in corners of 
the parlor, and that would give ns plenty 
of room. Papa was amazingly sweet about it 
all. I shall keep the sale open two even¬ 
ings. Won’t that be fine ? ” 

“ Yes, indeed, it will! ” said Isabel. “ It 
will be a lovely place to hold a fair; every¬ 
body ’ll come.” 

“ Just what I want! ” exclaimed Pauline. 
“ If everybody comes, we shall be sure of 
making a lot of money. Now here it is the 
first of January, and we can have two 
months and a half to work in. We can get 
onr relatives to help ns, perhaps, but so far 
as assistance goes, can’t we keep the whole 
thing mainly in onr own hands without say¬ 
ing a great deal about it at first ? ” - 

“ Yes, I think so,” said Rebecca Lorraine. 
“ We can organize in an easy manner; then 
talk over, as I said before, what we will 


,8 LINKS OF GOLD 

make and the best way in which to help 
along some good cause.” 

It was agreed that the next afternoon the 
girls should meet at Pauline’s again, at two 
o’clock, after which the friends took their 
leave. 

“ Girls,” said Isabel as they moved away, 
“ did you ever hear such a veritable i Borrio- 
boola Glia ’ plan in all your lives ? ” 

“ Oh, but do n’t you know,” broke in Re¬ 
becca, “ that it would, be a thousand pities 
to oppose too suddenly anything of that 
nature that Pauline might propose ? ” 

“ What made you give me that terrible 
‘ beware ’ look ? ” asked Isabel, “ when I 
asked if the African—Mozambique—Comoro 
—Indian Ocean place was n’t rather far 
off?” 

“Yes, I saw that look,” said Susie, “ and 
was nearly frozen into silence.” 

Rebecca laughed a little. “ Well, we all 
know, girls,” she said, growing suddenly 
sober, “ how much Dr. Compton, and all of 


AN ESCAPE 


*9 


us too, for that matter, have wished and 
wished that dear, proud, indifferent Pauline 
would show the first sign of interest in any¬ 
thing approaching to serious matters. Now 
this object is remote enough in all con¬ 
science, but I was so delighted to have Pau¬ 
line acknowledge that something was waking 
her up and making her realize, even faintly, 
that her soul must be cared for, that I would 
have fallen in with almost any plan that 
would increase that feeling on her part.” 

“ But there are such serious needs close 
at hand,” said lively Isabel. “ Only think 
what a mission building would be here at 
the Roads.” 

“ I do n’t believe it would be quite right to 
let Poppy think we approved a plan that we 
didn’t,” said Addie; “and she has a neat 
little will of her own, has pretty Pauline 
Van Werter. Is n’t it best to speak right 
out? ” 

“Well,” said Rebecca, “I believe I’d 
rather go the whole African, Mozambique— 


20 


LINKS OF GOLD 


what is it ?—Comoro ?—Indian Ocean plan, 
than let Poppy’s new ambition entirely die 
out. I tell you it’s a hopeful sign, children 
dear.” 

“Yet I should hate to make a load of 
pretty things that the proceeds might be 
sent to the Indian Ocean,” said Isabel in her 
resistless spirit of banter. 

“ Oh, those twins ! ” cried Susie. “ How 
do I know they have any heads left on their 
shoulders ? I must go.” 

“Well, remember ‘ Borrioboola Gha ’ via 
the Indian Ocean, to-morrow at two,” 
laughed Isabel as the friends dispersed. 


CHAPTER II 


VERONA ROADS 

Such was the somewhat foreign sounding 
name of a fair suburb ten miles from one of 
onr capital cities. 

“ What a fine place the Roads is! ” said 
Jack Lorraine, while sauntering towards the 
station one bright, winter morning. 

“ Yes, fine it is,” returned Arthur Fred¬ 
ricks. “ Here are your gay city conven¬ 
iences all made to order, with enough of 
respectable quiet to keep one’s nerves in an 
even condition. Then again, there’s always 
enough going on to make things sufficiently 
lively. Pretty nice people in our sunny 
little township, moreover. I do n’t see but 
what, take it all in all, there might be some 


22 


LINKS OF GOLD 


difficulty in finding a much more desirable 
locality.” 

“ I wonder if the usual number of city 
people will come crowding into town with 
the June roses ? ” observed Jack. 

“ Oh, probably. Dr. Compton’s preaching 
has great interest for many of the summer 
boarders. And the doctor preaches a telling 
sermon, no mistake. By the way, you ’ll be 
going in for some of your father’s laurels 
before long, won’t you, Jack ? ” 

“ Thinking of it,” replied Jack with 
characteristic brevity. “ I do n’t know any 
profession that, according to my idea, goes 
ahead of a physician’s. And the study of 
medicine has attracted me ever since I used 
to try pa’s pills and peep at the pictures in 
his medical journals.” 

“ Just the way I feel about the law,” said 
Arthur. “ Lucky chaps we are to have our 
‘ paters ’ to give us a start right in their 
tracks. It’s a blessing we do n’t all want the 
same business, is n’t it ? ” 


VERONA ROADS 


23 


“ You ’re right there, my lad, but it takes 
a heap of study for the professions.” 

“ Yes, and a heap of application in any 
business whatever. Mr. Trenton, Isabel’s 
father, was telling father the other night, in 
my hearing, some of his experiences while he 
was getting ready to be the first-class pho¬ 
tographer and artist that he is. Phew! ” 
ejaculated Arthur, looking up meditatively, 
“ let’s see, he had to go abroad, stay a year 
at Antwerp, another in Germany, living 
mighty close as to quarters, food, and all 
other expenses, then he served a year with 
an old painter of considerable note, living on 
almost nothing, while learning the art of 
mixing colors, practising on tints and all 
that. Now, look at the studio he occupies 
in the city. By the way, I see Isabel has 
returned from that ‘ finishing school ’ and 
settled down at home.” 

“ I heard awhile ago,” said Jack, u that 
Mr. Van Werter was so expert in judging of 
Japanese goods of different kinds that it was 


24 


LINKS OF GOLD 


hard ever to deceive him. He used to visit 
Japan every other year and do his own 
buying ; now he selects from catalogues and 
sends a man over every little while. He 
must be one of the richest men here. And 
see what a fine little mistress of the house 
Poppy makes. Must be all of ten years 
since her mother died.” 

“ Susie Follansbee is a little picture of a 
housekeeper, too,” said Arthur with more 
feeling in his voice than he was aware of. 
“ Lucky her father has that big dry-goods 
place with its ready-made garments for her 
to draw from ; she has her hands full with 
those twins to look after.” 

And it was, indeed, lucky for Susie, for 
she too, like Pauline Van Werter, was moth¬ 
erless. The twins, Benny and Billy, were 
“ regular customers.” But this does not 
mean of their father’s house of trade or any 
other well-known place of business ; but in 
the broader, more democratic sense, which 
means that for two small boys, not yet six 


VERONA ROADS 


25 


years old,, they were “ Masther hands at 
iv’ry sly bit o’ mis-d^-vousness that ivir 
plagued a woman of all wurrk, an’ set iv’ry 
one in the nayborhood by the earrus,—that 
they be! ” 

Such was the verdict of the long-suffering 
Belinda, who answered most commonly to 
the name of Blinda, modified now and then 
to the softness of Blinny, when patience and 
mercy were coyly sued for by the twins. 

“ Oh, ye need n’t go Blinnyin’ me ! ” the 
girl would burst out in justifiable indigna¬ 
tion, when some fresh naughtiness or trick 
would cause delay in her work. Yet the 
soft-hearted girl would endure almost any¬ 
thing sooner than enter real complaint 
against the trying little culprits. Their 
mother had faded quickly with a fever, and 
let but a fit of crying succeed Benny and 
Billy’s being sent early to bed without 
cookies for supper—they invariably sinned 
in company—and Belinda was swift to con¬ 
clude that the natural flush upon their 


26 


LINKS OF GOLD 


cheeks was a “ sure sign o’ the faver,” that 
might sweep them away before the dawn. 

“ Thin’t is mesilf cud nivir bide in the 
plaace widout the two of thim to kape me 
awake wid their thricks an’ their thrumps, 
bless their wicked little sowls! ” Belinda 
would croon in kindly regret. 

As for Susie, with all the laughable ad¬ 
ventures and situations she showed up with 
so much glee, there was more or less pathos 
about it all. There were wakeful nights 
and wearisome days. Yet she copied in 
their training many things she could re¬ 
member of her mother. Every night after 
the frolicsome twins were in bed, she heard 
them say their prayers, then with true 
motherly instinct would draw from them a 
recital of the day’s doings. At this the chil¬ 
dren, with reckless candor, with smacking 
of lips and often with squeals of satisfac¬ 
tion, would enjoy recounting their ofttimes 
naughty deeds. 

Then Susie would “ have a little talk,” 


VERONA ROADS 


27 


just as her mother used to have with her. 
How much repentance lurked in the giggles 
and chuckles that floated to her ears as she 
left them to their slumbers would be hard 
to say, but certain it was, that each day’s 
evil with that pair was sufficient unto itself, 
and Susie, with her blithe nature, could only 
trust that the God to whom she never forgot 
to pray would have her little brothers in 
his keeping. 

Just before starting for Pauline’s the next 
afternoon, Susie told the twins she was 
going out to call, and they must be good 
little boys, mind Belinda, and stay in the 
yard. 

“ Oh, I ’ll be a ’markably good boy,” said 
Benny glibly ; and Billy, who always echoed 
what Benny said, observed, “ Yes, an’ I ’ll be 
good as he is.” 

But alas! as Susie turned to leave the 
room she happened, in glancing back, to see 
in a mirror the reflection of Benny, who, with 
a sidelong look at her retreating form, thrust 


28 


LINKS OF GOLD 


out a little red tongue as far as lie could 
get it. 

“ Benny,” she said sternly, turning toward 
him, “ what does that mean ? Do n’t you 
intend to be a good boy ? ” 

“ The groc’ry boy does that,” said Benny, 
“ it’s man-ny.” 

“ No, Benny, there’s nothing manly nor 
pretty about that, and it seemed to say, ‘ Oh, 
I ’ll be naughty as I can be soon as sister has 
gone away.’ ” 

“Well, I was goin’ to be horwid,” con¬ 
fessed Benny with a cavalier air, “ but I 
won’t be now.” 

“ Yes, I was too,” piped Billy, “ but I ’ll 
be good, trooly rooly.” 

On starting out Susie encountered Mrs. 
Hoostan, an industrious Scotchwoman, and 
wife of the man who so drew on his imagi¬ 
nation in spreading the story of Jack Lor¬ 
raine’s adventure on the ice. Their only 
child, a young daughter, was in a precarious 
condition from some hip trouble. Mrs. 


VERONA ROADS 


2 9 

Hoostan washed the tessellated marble floor 
of the bank, scrubbed clean the woodwork of 
the schoolrooms, and chiefly in the town’s 
service managed to care largely for her little 
family of three. Her intemperate husband 
sometimes aided her, but a large part of the 
time was only an added burden. 

“ How is Melly ? ” Susie inquired as Mrs. 
Hoostan came rapidly towards her. 

“ Oh, pnirly enoogh, miss,” came the 
reply, “ pnirly enoogh. I do a’ I can for me 
lass, but she gets weaker richt alang. I ’m 
sure it’s mesel’ hae tried a’ the doctors an’ 
med’cine I cud, but still me lass gangs doon. 
Dr. Lorraine be tellin’ me I ought to be sendin’ 
her tae the ’ospital, but whare’s th’ monny 
to coom fra’ to pay th’ costs ? ’T is harrud 
to see me bonny girrnl soofer, but I canna’ 
see her gang awa 5 till I hae th’ means o’ 
payin’ mesel’ for her coomfort.” 

“ I should think the town might help yon 
out,” said Susie, “ or—where do you attend 
church ? ” 


3° 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ Hoot, miss! ” exclaimed the mother, 
“ an’ ’t is nivir a moment I gets for th’ kirk, 
though Melly did like weel the Soonday- 
school. But ’t is th’ Roads is verra back- 
handed in helpin’ a puir body oot, an’ I ’ll 
nae ask for it. There’s puir William 
Wansted that broket his arrum las’ Michael¬ 
mas, nigh four moonths agone, an’ hae nivir 
seen a goot day sine, an’ th’ toonship only 
gi’s him a dollar and a half a week, an’ his 
wife an’ a lame bairn to look oot for.” And 
Mrs. Hoostan hurried on. 

Susie hurried also and reached Mr. Van 
Werter’s house just as the clock struck two. 
She was the last to arrive, although she was 
not late. 

u Why, what a prompt little committee it 
is! ” Susie exclaimed as she entered the 
library to find Rebecca Lorraine, Isabel 
Trenton, and Addie Fredricks seated with 
wraps and gloves taken off, and all in readi¬ 
ness for the discussion before them. 

“You see we want to be 1 forehanded,’ as 


VERONA ROADS 


31 


Grandma Van Werter used to say, through¬ 
out the whole affair,” Pauline remarked in 
her usual breezy way. “ I Ve been talking 
it over with papa,” she continued, “ and if it 
is proper, I should like to tell a little defi¬ 
nitely what it appears to me would be a few 
good plans to start with. First, then, had 
n’t we better organize to the extent of ap¬ 
pointing a president, a secretary, and a treas¬ 
urer ? ” 

“ Yes, I think that would be advisable,” 
said Rebecca. 

So it was speedily arranged that Pauline 
should be president, Addie Fredricks secre¬ 
tary, and Rebecca Lorraine treasurer. It 
was also thought best to call the enterprise 
a sale, that word being preferable to the 
more pretentious one of fair, inasmuch as it 
was to be carried on in a private house. 


CHAPTER HI 

DISCUSSION AND DECISIONS 

“ Now,” said Pauline, “ we ’ll have every¬ 
thing just as attractive as possible at our 
sale. To begin with, we must have five 
tables, one for each of us. The extension 
table from the dining-room will be very nice 
for one side of the parlor, then papa has 
some plain, medium-sized tables that he uses 
at the store at Christmas time, and he says 
we can take four of those. About covering 
them, as they are only rough and plain ”— 
“ Oh, I ’ll tell you what would be pretty 
for those,” Susie Follansbee said as Pauline 
paused. “ Papa, I know, will let me have 
some different colored cambrics, pink, blue, 

yellow, red, and white. Candy looks fine 
3 2 


DISCUSSION AND DECISIONS 


33 


on a brightly covered table. Oh, and I 
shouldn’t wonder,” she went on, “if papa 
had some old style lace curtains or perhaps 
some coarse mull we could catch on to the 
cambrics and make the tables very pretty.” 

“ Do n’t you think we should each need 
an assistant the evenings of the sale ? ” 
asked Pauline. 

“Yes, we should,” promptly answered 
Isabel. “ One of the girls in my former 
Sunday-school class would be delighted to 
assist me, I know. There is Lilly Snow; 
she is a bright, pretty little thing. She must 
be all of fourteen, and is as active as a busy 
bee. I think I ’ll settle on Lilly.” 

“ And I might ask one of my scholars,” 
said Addie Fredricks. “ I suppose Lora 
Torrence would be overjoyed to be ‘ in ’such 
a fine time as that. She would be sure to 
look like a little fairy.” 

“ If I thought my only little sister would 
keep mum as far as Jack is concerned,” be¬ 
gan Rebecca, “ I’d have Dora assist me, and 
3 


34 


LINKS OF GOLD 


she must, anyway, as to one thing. For a 
twelve-year-old she can make change as cor¬ 
rectly as a much older person, and when it 
comes to dressing a doll, I must say she has 
the most astonishing faculty of any one I 
ever saw. Aunt Laura, who was with us 
when Dora had that long season of lame¬ 
ness from spraining her ankle, taught the 
child to sew beautifully. She has a little 
trunk full of the choicest pieces of silk, 
laces, and embroidery. I heard her wishing 
one day she had an army of dolls to dress. 
But I do n’t want that brother of mine to 
know anything of this affair until the last 
moment possible. He’d have his whole 
class in college out here volunteering their 
help, I’m afraid, beside teasing me in a hun¬ 
dred ways.” 

“ It would be nice to have some dressed 
dolls, I think,” said Pauline, “ and Dora 
might have a part of your table for them ; 
would n’t she promise not to say anything 
before Jack ? ” 


DISCUSSION AND DECISIONS 


35 


“ Oh, yes, she’d promise quickly enough,” 
said Rebecca, “ and the little dear would be 
loyal too, only you know she just idolizes 
Jack, and no wonder, for he makes a perfect 
little goose of her, petting her all the time. 
You see, being in his twenties, he seems 
quite advanced to Dora. But once let Jack 
find out she was dressing a phalanx of dolls 
and ” — Rebecca paused and drew a long 
sigh. “ Well, I can ’t tell how it would come 
about, but I believe that somehow, by hook 
or by crook, my brother would have the 
whole thing at his tongue’s end before Dora 
dreamed of such a thing. He’d sit up 
nights and go without his meals to ferret 
out anything he suspected we girls were 
about and were keeping to ourselves.” 

Pauline laughed merrily. It was no secret 
among the friends that Jack, gay, noble- 
featured Jack Lorraine, was seldom answered 
nay when on sundry occasions he invited 
Pauline Van Werter to accompany him 
to concert, lecture, or party of pleasure. 


36 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Others, it is true, were equally desirous of 
showing so charming a young girl frequent 
attentions, but this seemed in no wise to 
trouble the light-hearted Jack. 

As for Arthur Fredricks, four years older 
than his sister Addie, he was already in his 
father’s law office in the city, taking ludi¬ 
crous pride in frequent allusions to his 
u partner ”—an assumption of which he en¬ 
joyed the joke to the full. 

Susie Follansbee had been so quiet up to 
this time that all at once Isabel Trenton 
rallied her. “ Why, Susie, where are you ? ” 
she said. “ Here I ’ve picked out my as¬ 
sistant ; Addie and Rebecca have theirs. I 
suppose Pauline has selected hers long ago, 
and who is to be yours ? ” 

“I do n’t know as I ’m quite ready to pro¬ 
pose mine,” Susie answered. “ Suppose we 
hear from Poppy first.” 

“ If it would be agreeable,” Pauline be¬ 
gan, “ I should like to invite my cousin, 
Madeline Hunter, of whom you have all 


DISCUSSION AND DECISIONS 37 

heard me speak, to make me a visit and 
take in the sale. She lives in Chicago and 
declares she never has any nice, cozy times. 
Everything there, she says, is on so large a 
scale one loses all personality and can’t en¬ 
joy half as much as though once in a while 
things could be carried on in a less gigantic 
manner. Madeline is a very taking girl 
and I know would not only come but would 
make us some beautiful things if she were 
given the opportunity. I want to leave the 
matter entirely with you,” she added with 
pretty grace, “ but I thought it might add 
Zclat to the occasion if a young lady from 
some other place who would take a lively 
interest in our sale were to be present with 
ns. I can promise Maidie would fall right 
in and be one of the most interested of us 
all. Our mothers were sisters, very dear 
sisters, and Maidie, whose mother died a 
year after my mother left me, is a little older 
than I am. As I said, she will be sure to 
come if I invite her.” 


38 


LINKS OF GOLD 


The very cordial response this proposition 
met from all her friends at once convinced 
Pauline of the warm welcome her cousin 
would receive, and then they fell to arrang¬ 
ing the furnishings of the five tables. 

There was to be one table of fancy arti¬ 
cles. For this, Isabel Trenton said her 
father would give some beautiful photo¬ 
graphs, some colored, some plain, and of 
prominent people and famous localities. 
“ For many of these I will make fancy 
frames,” Isabel added, “ and it may be papa 
will throw in an oil painting or two, cute 
little ones of some value ; ” and Isabel being 
a cherished only child, it was not feared that 
her contribution would be at all a meagre 
one. A little further on in the discussion 
Isabel proposed fanciful contributions to an¬ 
other table through some of her friends. 

Another table was to have only useful 
articles. “ That’s where I ’ll come in,” 
said Susie gleefully. “ Perhaps we sha’ n’t 
all care to stand at the table we furnish the 


DISCUSSION AND DECISIONS 


39 


most articles for. I ’ll make papa give me 
lots of material that with comparatively little 
work can be made into very useful articles. 
I think aprons will be my specialty. I only 
wish we had more time.” 

“ Oh, well, ten weeks is a good while,” 
said Pauline, u and we can ’t very well make 
it later, as it would carry ns too far into 
Lent. Easter comes late this year. Now 
about the candy table ? What shall we do 
about that ? ” 

“ I ’ll make a lot of candy,” said Rebecca. 
“ Home-made candies are always in demand. 
I make several kinds, and I know Addie 
makes delightful candy.” 

“ So does Isabel,” laughed Isabel herself. 
“ But for two nights we shall want a pretty 
good supply.” 

“ I ’ll make dozens and dozens of corn- 
balls,” said Addie Fredricks; “ and what 
about Hetty Shockmeyer ? Would n’t she 
be pleased at being asked to do something 
for ns in that line ? ” 


40 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“I was waiting until we got around to the 
candy question before speaking about my 
assistant,’’ said Susie Follansbee. “ I know 
it would be such a real joy to Hetty not 
only to help us, but to be asked to share 
this interest to the extent of standing be¬ 
hind one of the tables, that if it is thought 
best, I should like to be at the candy table 
and have Hetty with me.” 

This gained at once the unanimous ap¬ 
proval of all present. 

Hetty Shockmeyer was a young German 
girl whose parents during a four years’ resi¬ 
dence in Verona Roads had acquired an ex¬ 
cellent reputation as manufacturers of fine 
candies, chocolate sweets and sugared fruits, 
greatly to their profit. During this time, 
Hetty, a member of Susie’s class, had be¬ 
come an enthusiastic young Christian. No 
more active member of the Young People’s 
Society was in Dr. Compton’s church than 
sunny Hetty Shockmeyer. At Christmas 
time she had made and filled fifty candy 


DISCUSSION AND DECISIONS 


4i 


bags to be hung on the glittering tree at the 
vestry. 

“ Well, now four tables are arranged for,” 
said Pauline. “What about the fifth? 
Shall we have flowers ? ” 

“ It seems as though we must have a 
flower table,” said Rebecca, “ only flowers 
are so expensive, especially just now.” 

“ I ’ll tell you what we might do,” said 
Isabel. “ Suppose we have a table of flowers, 
part natural, part made of paper. I have 
two aunties who make the most perfect paper 
flowers imaginable. You would think a 
bunch of their sweet peas were really garden 
flowers. They make poppies and mount 
them on wire covered with green tissue 
paper to be used as lamp shades or screens ; 
and snowballs, tinted perfectly, they make 
in the same way. Really, you never saw 
anything to surpass them of the kind. 
They’d delight to send me a great variety, 

I know, if I asked them.” 

“ I think that would be quite an idea,” 


42 


LINKS OF GOLD 


said Pauline briskly. “ And then papa has 
a friend in the city who is a florist, and he 
went somewhere in the country to visit his 
conservatories not long ago. I ’ll invite 
papa to call on him and solicit a donation 
on easy terms, or papa would buy me some 
flowers. I will see to that part.” 

It only remained now to assign to each one 
the particular table at which she was to stand. 
So it was agreed that Pauline Van Werter 
and her cousin, Madeline Hunter, should 
have the flower table; Rebecca Lorraine 
and her sister Dora the dolls and juvenile 
goods; Addie Fredricks and Lora Torrence 
the useful articles; Susie Follansbee and 
Hetty Shockmeyer the candy ; Isabel Tren¬ 
ton and Lilly Snow the fancy articles. 

They chatted merrily for a while, each 
telling of friends, nearly all of them out-of- 
town relatives, whom they meant to press 
into service. 

Addie Fredricks with much merriment 
told how her grandma Fredricks took hick- 


DISCUSSION AND DECISIONS 


43 


ory nuts, put a stick in one side and in the 
stick inserted arms, then painted faces on 
the nuts,—or got grandpa Fredricks to do 
that part,—using the point of the nut for a 
nose. Then she rigged them up as dolls for 
penwipers. “ You’d never dream, girls,” she 
added, “ that an old lady of seventy-five years 
could make such perfectly grotesque, comical 
figures, and dress them out in such fanciful 
ways as she will. The skirts stand out like 
balloons, and—of all the countenances! — 
well, you shall see.” 

Then came a moment of silence, and the 
girls looked quizzically at each other. After 
another moment, Susie said, as if struck by 
a sudden thought:— 

“ Oh, Pauline, we thought perhaps we had 
better discuss the object of our sale for a 
little while.” 

“ Yes, so we had,” said Pauline readily ; 
“ papa is going to tell me howto open a cor¬ 
respondence with the missionary at Comoro 
very soon.” 


44 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Then Rebecca, Isabel, with eyes dancing, 
and Addie again looked at poor Susie, 
who tried to speak steadily and bravely; 
and there was a ring of Christian frankness 
in her young voice. 


CHAPTER IV 

HOW THEY SETTLED IT 

“ Has it ever occurred to you, Poppy dear,” 
Susie began gently, “ that perhaps we all, 
you quite as much as the rest, would really 
enjoy our good work more heartily if it was 
for some object nearer home ? We found, in 
talking it over, that Africa seemed so remote 
and means of communication were going 
to be so sluggish and all that, it might be 
better at the outset to reconsider that part 
of the scheme. Do n’t you think yourself it 
would be a satisfaction to see the outcome of 
our efforts ? ” 

Pauline looked rather blank. “ Why, I 
thought,” she said, flushing a little, “ you 

were all taken with my idea and liked it. I 
45 


46 


LINKS OF GOLD 


looked carefully into the matter before speak¬ 
ing of it, although I know I announced my¬ 
self quite suddenly yesterday.” She stopped 
as if completely taken aback and regarded 
her companions with rising color. 

Well, it’s just like everything else,” 
said Addie in an off-hand way ; “at first a 
plan may appear attractive and just what 
it should be ; but come to look at it more 
closely, the question will arise whether that 
is the best scheme after all.” 

“ But please understand one thing clearly, 
Pauline,” said Rebecca, and she spoke with 
great earnestness, “ we will all go straight to 
work on the Comoro plan if you want to hold 
to your first purpose, or if altering it is going 
to spoil your pleasure or take from your in¬ 
terest. You started this movement and we 
want to follow your wishes. The truth is, 
some kind of a charitable organization beside 
the Roads Benevolent Society could do a 
great deal of good. Then there are cases of 
need, sort of private cases, I mean, where a 



HO W THE Y SE TTLED IT 


47 


band of workers such as we might become 
could do very acceptable service. So we 
might think of it and compare ideas and 
settle finally what our object shall be.” 

Here, indeed, was a new showing of affairs. 
Pauline, dignified and ladylike, sat listening, 
her heightened color and quicker breathing 
alone indicating a little inward corfflict 
between pride, tenacity of purpose, and true 
affection for these stanch and honest mates. 

Then Isabel Trenton began in a slow, 
hesitating way, unlike her naturally easy 
manner of speech: “I have a sort of un¬ 
thought-out idea that we could form a kind 
of Home Missionary Band. That is the 
idea in the rough. I should n’t want so 
staid or pretentious a name, but how pleasant 
it would be if we should form a quiet little 
band among ourselves, raise money from 
time to time, and use it whenever any one of 
us should hear of a case needing immediate 
aid.” 

“ In that case it would have to go on from 


48 


LINKS OF GOLD 


year to year,” said Pauline, u and might lose 
some of its freshness and interest, or what¬ 
ever makes it appear so pleasing in first 
starting about it.” 

“ Ho ! not a bit of it! ” exclaimed Isabel 
in her merriest tones. “We need n’t stop to 
consider that now, but if we should become 
known as The Bounteous Sisterhood, or The 
Helpers of Respectable Unfortunates, or The 
Ever Ready Succorers, or ‘ wot not ’ as Tony 
Weller would say, why, I for one should 
rejoice in having anything so inspiring to 
think of.” 

Isabel’s jolly speech proved just what was 
needed to break up the slight constraint that 
had come over them under the strain of try¬ 
ing to divert their willing efforts from an 
unacceptable channel. After that, a free, 
good-natured, and outspoken discussion fol¬ 
lowed, to the relief of all. 

“ It would be something pleasant to work 
for summers,” admitted Pauline genially. 
“ I begin in August to make presents for 


HO IV THEY SETTLED IT 


49 

Christmas time, and although I enjoy mak- 
mg gifts for my friends, I must confess it 
used to come over me last summer that I 
ought to be doing something—something 
with more real profit in it. And then that 
sermon made me downright nervous. 

“ Papa laughed,” she went on, “ when I 
first told him of my missionary plan, and 
said, Well, he guessed it was about time I did 
something useful in the big, round world.” 
Pauline stopped a moment, then went on 
softly, “ And then, do you know, girls, I 
think papa was right on the point of saying 
something quite particular, he looked so 
solemn—a few words about my mother, per¬ 
haps, though he never does speak of mother. 
But he only patted my head and went out 
of the room looking very thoughtful.” 

“It occurs to me,” said Susie, who had 
not spoken for some time, “ that we could 
easily divide our profits if it were thought 
best. In that way Poppy could still send 
perhaps quite a nice little sum to the C6moro 

4 


5 ° 


LINKS OF GOLD 


missionary and we could aid to some extent 
the needy ones about us. I met Mrs. Hoos- 
tan on my way here; ” and Susie went on 
and repeated the conversation she had had 
with the Scotchwoman on the way to Pau¬ 
line’s. 

“ Naturally I could not help thinking,” 
Susie continued, “ how beautiful it would be 
if some of our number could go to that poor, 
anxious mother and say, ‘ Mrs. Hoostan, 
send Mellie to the hospital and see what can 
be done for her and our little guild will pay 
the bills ; we can do so easily.’ ” 

“ Oh, I shall go with the rest,” said Pau¬ 
line cheerily. “ I did hate for a moment to 
abandon my original plan,”—and she un¬ 
consciously threw a spice of regret into her 
tone,—“ but I can understand how satis¬ 
factory it is going to be to us all to see the 
good resulting from our sale, so I withdraw 
my proposal entirely.” 

“ But you can’t withdraw from being at 
the head of the movement, whatever it ac- 



HOW THEY SETTLED IT 


51 


complishes,” said Susie Follansbee, “ neither 
can any one rob yon of the credit of having 
set this special ball a-rolling. I’m sure, 
Poppy, I think the time may come when 
the rest of ns will have cause to envy you 
the distinction.” 

“ What a pretty little speech it was ! ” ex¬ 
claimed Pauline, throwing her white hands, 
palms outward, up toward her shoulders. 
And she smiled happily as if entirely molli¬ 
fied concerning any discomfiture she might 
have felt for a little while. 

“ If we should sell out early on the second 
evening,” Pauline went on, “we can have 
it understood that people are invited to re¬ 
main and enjoy a social hour or two. In 
that case we can circulate among our patrons 
and play the hostess each for herself.” 

“ Oh, about an entrance fee ! what shall 
that be ? ” asked Isabel Trenton. 

“ Dear me ! ” said Pauline, turning her 
head aside as if at remembrance of some 
recent conflict, “ such a scene as I had with 


5 2 


LINKS OF GOLD 


papa about that! He put his foot down 
that I should n’t, absolutely should not, 
have an admission price. He said his house 
had always been free to any one choosing to 
enter it as a friend. ‘ But, papa,’ I argued, 
‘ if two hundred people should come here 
one night and a hundred and fifty the 
second, there would be nearly ninety dollars 
at twenty-five cents each.’ Then he said he 
would rather give me outright what might 
be taken at the door. I said no, the others 
would not like that at all. Well, we talked! 
and we talked ! and we talked ! Finally 
papa gave in, but declared he meant to pub¬ 
lish in the Verona Roads Chronicle , that it 
was Mr. Van Werter’s daughter Poppy, not 
Van Werter himself, who allowed his house 
to be turned over to the interests of a ‘ paid 
concern.’ Oh, I did have the greatest time ! ” 

“ Poor Poppy ! What a conflict she did 
have ! ” laughingly crooned Isabel. 

“ Oh, I did now, and no mistake ! ” in¬ 
sisted Pauline. 




BOW THEY SETTLED IT 


53 


“ Well, it was too bad ! ” said Isabel; then 
suddenly changing her tone she asked, “ Oh, 
Poppy, won’t you go to our Young People’s 
meeting to-night? I wish you would! ” 

“ Oh, I think not,” said Pauline quickly ; 
“ I never do, you know.” 

“ Yes, bnt I think perhaps it might help 
matters very much if you should,” persisted 
Isabel. “ We want as many as will, of the 
young people, to attend our sale, and I think 
it would give them more of an impression of 
your being one of us, if they saw you at the 
meetings occasionally.” 

Pauline darted a suspicious look around, 
probably without meaning to. 

“ I think what Isabel says may be true,” 
said Addie, “ although such & thing has not 
been mentioned among us. The idea is a 
brand-new one, but really, Poppy, I think 
Isabel shows herself wise in her generation.” 

“ Well, I ’ll think of it,” said Pauline, 
evidently reluctant to give her consent. 

“ I might as well call for you, anyway,” 


54 


LINKS OF GOLD 


said Susie; “it is right on the way, so 
there ’ll be no harm done if you decide not 
to go.” 

“ Papa likes to have me at home evenings 
when he is,” said Pauline, and she glanced 
down at her handsome crimson house-dress 
with white quillings in the neck and sleeves 
and graceful ribbons floating from the waist. 

“ Oh, yes,” said Isabel, her white teeth 
gleaming with an amused smile, “ and papa 
lets his little darling go to sundry and divers 
places of amusement of an evening with 
beautiful resignation, and consents to her 
changing her dress whenever she chooses, 
and papa would n’t either stamp or scold 
if his Poppy wanted to go once in a while to 
a prayer-meeting. Honestly, Pauline,” she 
went on, dropping her bantering tone, “ you 
ought to know what good, solid meetings we 
have. I think you would enjoy them.” 

“Well, Susie can stop for me if she 
chooses,” Pauline answered, “ and I ’ll see 
how I feel when evening comes.” 


HOW THEY SETTLED IT 


55 


When the little meeting was about to 
break up, Pauline proposed that in a week, 
after having learned how many family 
friends could assist them, they should meet 
at her house again. 

“ Then we can form some definite idea of 
what our contributions are likely to be,” she 
added. 

“ Isabel, what possessed you to ask Pau¬ 
line to attend the meeting to-night ? ” asked 
Rebecca as they started homeward. “ I was 
afraid she would think it was a concerted 
plan. She treated all of us to an awfully 
suspicious look.” 

“ I spoke simply because it occurred to 
me,” said Isabel. “ I was afraid I had been 
a little hasty on the instant, for I caught 
the look you speak of. But I thought Addie 
disabused her mind quite cleverly of any im¬ 
pression she might have had as to our plan¬ 
ning to say anything. But I really think 
we are sometimes led on almost against our¬ 
selves, as we might say, to speak words we 


LINKS OF GOLD 


56 

had not intended to, and that was how I came 
to ask Poppy to go with ns to-night. After 
all, it is Pauline herself I can’t help think¬ 
ing of.” 

“ I hope she will go with us to the meet¬ 
ing,” said Susie. 


CHAPTER V 


JACK NONPLUSSED 

But Susie and her friends were disap¬ 
pointed. Pauline met her at the door at 
meeting time, still in her crimson dress with 
satin quillings and floating ribbons, saying 
she felt tired and not quite equal to the 
exertion of going out. “ And then it was 
going to be such a capital chance to write to 
cousin Madeline,” she added, “ I could not 
resist the temptation. Thank you for call¬ 
ing, Susie ; some other evening I might like 
to go.” 

Yet Pauline had by no means made up 
her mind to begin any attendance on the 
prayer-meetings. She had felt herself 

stirred to go comfortably about doing some 
57 


5 * 


LINKS OF GOLD 


good, but it would be an altogether different 
matter, she told herself, to assume being so 
seriously inclined as to go to “week-day” 
meetings. 

“Well, now do n’t let’s ask Poppy again 
at present,” suggested Rebecca as the four 
friends walked part way home from meeting 
in company. “ According to my way of 
thinking, it is going to be the wisest plan to 
let her act entirely as she chooses in going 
or staying.” 

“ Just what I had resolved on,” said Isabel. 
“I’m not sorry I asked her to go to-night. 
She can ’t say no one has invited her to make 
one of our number on Tuesday nights. 
Pauline will be drawn in with us in time, and 
she knows that we would welcome her gladly 
now should she incline to come with us.” 

A week from the day of the first meeting 
at Pauline’s the friends again met there, as 
agreed, but for some reason Rebecca was late 
in appearing. When she came it was with a 
flutter, as if she had hurried away at the last 


JA CK NONPL USSED 


59 


moment. Pauline, who was on the outlook, 
opened the door before she had a chance to 
ring. 

“ Oh, I ’m so glad I did n’t have to wait 
outside a moment! ” panted Rebecca, sink¬ 
ing into the first chair she came to. “I 
nearly ran all the way ; for what do yon 
think ? Jack’s at home ! Came last night, 
and is going to be at home, what’s more, for 
three or four days. Fortunately, I had put 
Dora’s dolls out of sight, and the child 
seemed relieved that none were around when 
Jack announced himself. Dora has twelve 
dolls in the house already and is overjoyed 
at the prospect of making the most of their 
clothes. Fortunately also, I had told Dora 
nothing about this meeting, so if Jack ques¬ 
tions her as to my whereabouts, as he is sure 
to do as soon as he misses me, the child 
won’t know where I am. But I feel exactly 
as though he would make his appearance any 
moment. I slipped away ‘ unbeknownst ’ to 
any one.” 


6o 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ If the bell should ring,” said Pauline, 
“ I ’ll draw this door to, and if I should find 
Mr. Jack Lorraine outside, I will invite 
him into the parlor. It would be a suspi¬ 
cious circumstance to find us in conclave, 
for, intimate as we are, we are not often 
together in the same house all at once.” 

Comparisons as to the amount of work to 
be done by the young ladies, and articles 
already promised from friends, convinced 
them that there would be no mean supply for 
the various tables by the middle of March, 
the time set for the sale to take place. 

“ We ’ll press our brothers into service 
then,” said Addie Fredricks, smiling over to 
Rebecca. “ By that time they ’ll be willing 
to do anything for us, because of our thought¬ 
fulness in not troubling them before.” 

“ That reminds me,” said Pauline, “we 
shall want a wagon-load of evergreens to 
twine about and to put along the edges of 
the tables and at the ends.” 

Then the girls began telling what some 


JACK NONPLUSSED 


6l 


of tlieir contributions were to be. Isabel 
Trenton said that her father had promised her 
a beautiful collection of photographs, such 
as she had spoken of the week before. “ I 
shall make frames for many of them,” she 
added. She also was to be given two little 
oil paintings, which if sold would add quite 
perceptibly to their receipts, and her aunts 
were going to send a great box of their paper 
flowers. 

Addie Fredricks was jubilant over the 
fair promises of several absent friends. 
“ Every one I wrote to responded right 
away,” she said, “ and seemed to regard it 
as a privilege to do something for so ‘ praise¬ 
worthy an object.’ That is what Grandma 
Fredricks called it. She is going right to 
work on a whole regiment of hickory-nut 
penwipers.” 

“ Papa Follansbee is just a treasure,” said 
Susie, who like the others was in high 
glee at her pleasant prospects. “ He said I 
should have yards and yards of ‘ damaged 


62 


LINKS OF GOLD 


cambric,’ which of course meant perfectly 
good material, although not of the finest 
quality, which we do n’t want. And 
he said he would see to it that Benny 
and Billy should be among our best cus¬ 
tomers.” 

“ Oh, the twins must come,” said Pauline ; 
“ it will be fun to have them here.” 

“ Well, possibly a little while the second 
evening,” said Susie, “ but I should feel far 
easier to have them at home and abed. 
That is the best place for children in the 
evening, and I’m afraid it would be but 
little fun for me to know they were here, 
for there ’d be no knowing what mischief 
they ’d be up to if they went out in the even¬ 
ing and got a little excited, as they would 
be sure to. Papa would promise to take care 
of them, but he is so easy, and they ’re so 
quick. I think they’d far better stay 
quietly at home with Blinda.” 

Matters all were promising. It was not 
thought needful or advisable to meet to- 


JA CK NONPL USSED 63 

gether for sewing, as each could do her work 
best at home. 

“ When shall we begin to advertise our 
sale, and what means shall we take for it ? ” 
asked Pauline. 

“ Shall we put it in the Chronicle ? ” 
asked Susie. 

“ Oh, no,” said Rebecca ; “ would n’t that 
be making it rather too general and public 
for our modest undertaking ? ” 

“ It would save papa’s putting in that 
other notice,” said Pauline with laughing 
eyes. 

“ I know something about as effectual as 
advertising,” said Addie. “ We can simply 
tell our acquaintances, and tell them to tell 
their acquaintances, and also inform Arthur 
in due time.” 

“ And I know something ahead of all 
that’s been proposed yet,” — from Rebecca 
Lorraine, — “ we can tell Jack! ” 

“ We won’t have any restrictions as to 
age,” said Pauline, “ only it must be under- 


64 


LINKS OF GOLD 


stood that really little people must be ac¬ 
companied by parents.” 

At that moment the bell r rang. Pauline 
intercepted Kate, who had started to answer 
the ring. At the door stood Jack Lorraine. 

“I thought,” he said in his pleasant, 
insfriuating tones, after having greeted 
Pauline, “ how restful it would be to lounge 
in your cheerful library a little while, and I 
was not sure but I should find that my 
beloved sister Rebecca had preceded me, as 
she took herself off without proper excuses 
directly after dinner.” Jack meantime was 
turning with the familiar grace of an old 
friend toward the library where the door 
appeared to be partly closed. 

Pauline received him in state with a mis¬ 
chievous “No, you don’t” in her eyes. 
“ Please walk in this way,” she said care¬ 
lessly, “I’m receiving in the parlor to-day, 
and—how happens it I have this pleasure ? ” 
“ Girls,” said Rebecca as the parlor door 
closed, “ that boy will just as surely manage 


JA CK NONPL USSED 


6 5 

to peep in here before he goes away as that 
we are alive. It is unusual for the doors in 
this house to be closed, and that sagacious 
pill knows it. Let’s creep softly up to 
Poppy’s room and leave the door wide open 
after us. Come now, and do n’t drop a glove 
or a handkerchief, or the least trace of any¬ 
thing that will give ns away.” 

Quickly and on tiptoe the girls mounted 
the stairs to Pauline’s room, which fortu¬ 
nately was over the library. Here they 
talked together in low tones, planning and 
comparing notes. Jack stayed so long, 
Rebecca was about to propose their creeping 
down the back stairway and out by the 
rear door, when the parlor door opened. 
At that Rebecca stepped into the hall, to 
call Pauline as soon as Jack should depart. 
The few words spoken in the lower hall 
were not distinguishable, although Pauline’s 
light laugh reached the quiet maidens in 
her room. 

As the front door closed Rebecca leaned 
5 


66 


LINKS OF GOLD 


over the banisters and called softly, “ Poppy! 
Poppy ! we ’re all up here.” 

“ Oh, I ’ve told a fib ! ” laughed Pauline 
as she ran over the stairs, “ for what do you 
think ! When Jack stepped into the hall he 
gave a sniff and said, 1 You tell my dear 
sister ’Becca, please, that she had better 
make use of something different in the way 
of perfumery from her favorite violet, if she 
thinks of running away, and then covering 
her tracks. Violet is quite pungent, you 
see.’ Then he looked me right in the eye and 
said, ‘ Is—ah—does my sister, Miss Rebecca 
Lorraine, happen to be in the house now, Miss 
Pauline ? ’ And I answered, I thought truly 
enough, ‘ No, she was here soon after dinner 
but she has gone now.’ I thought you had 
all slipped out the back way, but I ’in glad 
"you hit on something more sensible than 
that, after all.” 

Very soon the friends dispersed. Not a 
word had been said about the meeting in 
the evening, and Jack Lorraine, who would 


JA CK NONPL USSED 


67 

be pretty sure to go, had not alluded to it. 
But Pauline remembered it was “ Young 
People’s ” night. 

“ If I had gone last week, I should have 
gone again to-night probably,” she said to 
herself. “ Those four girls are all safely 
in the church,” she murmured dreamily, 
“ and I could be too, if I wanted to, but I 
do n’t want to be in the church for some time 
to come ; I want to enjoy myself.” 

And the old fallacy that religion and 
church membership shut out high spirits 
and natural enjoyment for the young filled 
her mind for a moment. 

Then something else occurred to her. 
“ I wonder what made me say the girls were 
all ‘ safely ’ in the church ? ” she mused. 
“ Can ’t a person be just as safe outside the 
church ? ” She stood quietly thinking a 
moment or two, then added in a girlish way, 
not devoid of sadness : “ I do n’t care, I can ’t 
help a kind of lonesome feeling, just as 
though the girls, all but me, had taken pas- 


68 


LINKS OF GOLD 


sage for some pleasant journey and I was 
left behind. I should feel better about it if 
either they were like me and did n’t much 
care for church matters, or else if I had been 
inclined that way all along, and was one of 
them every way. Perhaps if my mother 
had lived I should have thought more as 
my friends do. At all events, I am not go¬ 
ing to brood over anything I can decide for 
myself at any time.” 

That ended her reflections for the time 
being, but the truth was, Pauline could not 
be long enlisted in an enterprise bringing 
her closely and constantly in contact with 
her pleasant, happy friends without realiz¬ 
ing that in some respects they were not 
equally yoked together, and she did not 
enjoy the feeling. 

Early in the evening, as Pauline was sit¬ 
ting in the comfortable library, a book in 
her hands, she all at once heard the voices 
of some young people chatting cheerily as 
they went by. 


JACK NONPLUSSED 


69 


“ That sounds like some of your com¬ 
panions, does n’t it, dear ? ” said her father, 
as through the window lowered at the top 
the sound floated in. 

“ Yes, papa,” she replied. “ I think it is 
Susie Follansbee, and Addie Fredricks and 
Arthur. Possibly Isabel is with them.” 

“What’s going on to-night? ” asked her 
father as he turned a leaf of his paper. 

“ It’s the Young People’s meeting at the 
church vestry to-night.” 

“ Ah, the Young People’s meeting?” re¬ 
peated her father inquiringly. 

“ Yes, this is the night for it. It is held 
every Tuesday evening.” 

“ And you do n’t go, daughter? ” 

“ No, papa, I’ve never been yet. I do n’t 
exactly belong there as yet.” 

Her father said, “ Ah ? ” again, then re¬ 
turned to his newspaper. 

Pauline looked up from her book and was 
relieved to find her father apparently ab¬ 
sorbed with the day’s news. Then happen- 


7 o 


LINKS OF GOLD 


ing to glance at his head as he sat a little 
before her on the other side of the library 
table, she was surprised to see how gray he 
was growing. She had never noticed it be¬ 
fore. She thought with a momentary pang, 
which she could not have explained, what a 
good father he had been, how kind and in¬ 
dulgent, and she wondered if she had made 
him quite as filial a return as she might 
have done. 

“ I suppose he ’s mourned for mamma 
and missed her more than I Ve had any idea 
of,” she thought; “ but then, I never could 
say anything to him about her as long as 
he never mentioned her to me.” Then as 
the little feeling of compunction lingered 
she thought again: “ I ’m sure I do n’t see 
why I need have the least reproachful feel¬ 
ing, so far as serious matters are concerned, 
with papa. It is natural for parents to try 
to influence their children in such things, 
and papa has never said one word to me 
about religious matters further than to ask 


JACK NONPLUSSED 


71 


me if I was going to church on Sunday 
mornings. I guess he does n’t care for 
things of that kind.” 

But for some reason Pauline could not fix 
her thoughts on her book. Her eyes would 
keep straying over to where her quiet father 
sat reading his paper. And every time she 
looked, it surprised and impressed her more 
and more that the silver gleamed so plainly 
through the closely cropped but shining 
hair. 

u If I ever should care about those things,” 
she thought finally, “ I should certainly try 
and influence papa that way too; and if I 
ever do go into the church, I shall surely 
invite papa to go with me. He is such a 
dear papa! ” 


CHAPTER VI 


ONE TUESDAY EVENING 

Everything went briskly forward now 
that all preliminaries were settled. Jack 
Lorraine had returned to college ignorant 
of what was in the air, thanks to Rebecca’s 
nonchalant manner and Dora’s matter-of-fact 
replies to a few leading questions which he 
put to her, thus allaying any little curiosity 
which that student of medicine might have 
been inclined to indulge. 

Hetty Shockmeyer, elated and flattered 
that Miss Pauline Van Werter called in com¬ 
pany with her dear teacher, Miss Susie Fol- 
lansbee, and asked if she would like to do¬ 
nate some candy to their enterprise, gave 
happy hints, with merrily twinkling eyes, 

of the quantity and variety of “ sweets ” she 
72 


ONE TUESDAY EVENING 


73 


should have ready in good season. Her de¬ 
light was truly amusing upon being further 
invited to stand with Susie behind the candy 
table. “ I won’t whisper it even to the sugar 
but only to mine mutter,’i she promised, 
when the young ladies said that for a few 
weeks they wished to keep the matter quiet. 

Every time the girls met each other re¬ 
ports were stimulating, for the articles soon 
began to arrive from the friends who had 
promised their aid. But friendly and inti¬ 
mate as the five girls continued, nothing more 
was said to Pauline' about attending the 
Christian Endeavor meetings. At first she 
felt relieved that it evidently was not the 
others’ intention to do so ; but after a few 
weeks her feelings changed. She had not 
forgotten Isabel’s remark that other young 
people of Dr. Compton’s society would feel 
she was more one of them if she attended 
the meetings, and she began wondering if it 
would be so. 

“ If I could bring it about now in some 


74 


LINKS OF GOLD 


easy, natural way,” Pauline said to herself, 
“ I would not refuse to go to one of the meet¬ 
ings, but I think it is doubtful if I am asked 
to go again.” 

About the same time Susie said to Isabel: 
“ I do n’t know what makes me think so, but 
I can’t help thinking that if any of ns should 
ask Poppy to go with us some Tuesday even¬ 
ing she would consent at once. I seem to 
feel it instinctively.” 

The next Tuesday evening, as Susie and 
Rebecca were on their way to the vestry, 
Pauline Van Werter came out of her door all 
dressed for a walk. 

“ Why, you ’re just in time,” said Susie 
with a little satisfied laugh, “ and we did n’t 
even have to call for you.” 

Pauline laughed a little in turn. “I’m 
on my way to Miss Curlew’s,” she said; 
“ she ’s making me up a few small ribbon 
bows. I did n’t say what I wanted them for, 
but they ’re to put on some stylish morning 
caps I’m making. I took one apart that 


ONE TUESDAY EVENING 


75 


Madeline Hunter once sent me, and am mak¬ 
ing several from the pattern. They are 
very convenient for ladies who dust their 
own parlors, and I think will sell very well. 
Now here ’s the milliner’s. Oh, sho ! ” she 
added, having tried the door, “ if she is n’t 
locked up ! But what’s this notice ? ” And 
Pauline read from a paper inside the glass 
door, “ Open at eight o’clock.” 

“ Now, I ’ll tell yon,” said Susie, speaking 
in a low, mock confidential tone, “ Miss 
Curlew has been to the city for some fresh 
ribbons, the nice little milliner that she is, 
and if you should keep right on with us to 
the meeting we should be out before nine 
o’clock, when Miss Curlew shuts up ; then 
yon could drop in on the way home and get 
your bows just as easy ! ” 

“ And we ’ll all wait outside or go in with 
yon, so nothing shall scare you,” put in 
Rebecca. 

“ Ho ! I’m no such coward as that,” said 
Pauline, keeping right on. 


7 6 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Not another word was said about going 
or returning, Pauline simply walking along 
with Susie and Rebecca, until on reaching 
the vestry she went in without a demur. 
Addie soon made her appearance, seating 
herself beside Pauline on the settee, and in 
a moment or two more Isabel went up the 
aisle, taking her seat at the desk on the 
platform. 

“ Why, is Isabel going to be Dr. Compton 
to-night?” Pauline whispered to Susie, a 
look of amused surprise in her eyes. 

“ Oh, yes, we he all expected to take 
charge when our turn comes,” Susie replied. 
“ Dr. Compton won’t appear until the close 
of the service, if he does at all.” 

“ Why, I never could do it in the world ! ” 
said Pauline, sobering completely, and look¬ 
ing at Isabel as though she had suddenly 
become a natural curiosity. That Isabel 
Trenton, light-hearted, laughing Isabel, 
quicker than any of the rest to see and 
appreciate a witticism, fun-loving, merry 


ONE TUESDAY EVENING 


77 


Isabel, that she, of all persons ! could seat 
herself before a vestry full of young people, 
and some not so very young, either, and 
keep her countenance, and carry on a serious, 
earnest service! Well, Pauline actually 
trembled from a feeling of excitement not 
unmixed with some sympathy for Isabel in 
her trying position. “ She is used to such 
a different kind of 1 carrying on/ ” Pauline 
thought with a forlorn inward smile. 

But there was something in her friend’s 
tone and manner, steady and self-possessed, 
as she gave out the opening hymn and read 
the first verse, that calmed Pauline entirely, 
and induced the mental verdict, u She will 
go steadily on to the end, and will not falter 
nor break down.” 

From the outset Pauline was both sur¬ 
prised and impressed. She had not realized 
that there were so many young people in the 
society where she attended church. She 
had known nothing, either, of how the meet¬ 
ings were conducted, The hymns, bright, 


;8 


LINKS OF GOLD 


inspiring, and full of melody and power, so 
familiar to all in the assembly except her¬ 
self, were new and sounded very pleasant to 
her unaccustomed ear. 

Isabel read slowly and distinctly the story 
of the ten virgins, five of whom were wise 
and five foolish. Her unfaltering voice, in 
its even, serious tones, sounded new to 
Pauline, and carried weight with every suc¬ 
ceeding verse. “ She is a noble girl! ” 
thought Pauline, “ a dear, noble girl! stand¬ 
ing there so calmly and bravely, reading the 
Bible to us all. I thought I knew Isabel 
Trenton, but I had never seen this new 
phase of character before. Does Addie 
Fredricks ‘ take charge ’ when her turn 
comes ? And do Rebecca Lorraine and Susie 
Follansbee ? I suppose so.” 

Then it occurred to Pauline that after all 
her surprise and questionings she had never 
known one of these friends to either do or 
say the least thing that need reflect on the 
character of a Christian. “ Only I can’t 



V Humi/KV 


?. ■< 








t". : 




“ ISABEL READ SLOWLY AND DISTINCTLY.” 







ONE TUESDAY EVENING 


79 


think of religion apart from an idea of self- 
denial or austerity,” she concluded. 

Isabel said a few words about the par¬ 
able, but only a few. The application was 
too plain to need enlarging on. Then she 
asked if some one would offer a short 
prayer, not forgetting to ask that every one 
in- that room might be wise, not neglecting 
to have the lamp of life furnished with the 
oil of the spirit of Jesus Christ—a light so 
freely given to all who would but take it. 

Rebecca Lorraine arose. Midway in the 
prayer Pauline thought, “I must cry!” 
It seemed as if she could not keep the tears 
back, yet she was determined they should 
not come. “ If I ’m going to be as emotional 
as all this,” she tried to say severely to her¬ 
self, “ I ’d better not come to the Young 
People’s meeting again.” 

Rebecca knew for what she wanted to 
plead, the burden of her prayer being that 
all people everywhere, and all who were 
near and dear, yet were u out of Christ,” 


8o 


LINKS OF GOLD 


might be brought into his safe fold. Very 
softly she prayed for the young in “ the 
temples of learning,” who, in the full pride 
of life and the pleasures of youth, might for¬ 
get to furnish oil for the lamp which must 
be kept burning against the coming of the 
Master, and which would light the way to 
a better life than this fleeting, transitory 
one. Some of these petitions lodged in 
Pauline’s memory. 

Remarks were spontaneous and to the 
point, the prayers brief and simple. Dr. 
Compton toward the close added a few words 
of entreaty that all who had failed thus far 
to furnish themselves with the light of the 
Saviour’s love, would be guilty of such neg¬ 
lect no longer. 

The entire service was like a revelation 
to Pauline. Would her companions seem 
the same to her on the way home as they 
always had? Would they laugh and jest 
and talk of indifferent matters, leaving all 
serious considerations behind them in the 


ONE TUESDAY EVENING 81 

quiet vestry ? She waited for one of them 
to speak first. 

“Didn’t we have a good meeting?” 
asked Rebecca as they all began walking 
homeward. 

“Yes,” said Susie. “The truth is, I 
particularly needed that meeting to-night. 
As to that, I always need our meetings,” she 
added ; “ but Benny and Billy have been up 
to all sorts of capers to-day, and I did n’t 
blame Blinda when she called them ‘ the 
most agger-ri-vating little tikes.’ But I 
never get a little discouraged but what one 
of our meetings sets me all right again. 
Did you notice that poor Harvey Nicholls 
prayed the dear Lord to give him the oil of 
patience, for he felt that patience was what 
he most needed to keep him in fit condition 
for the indwelling light of the Saviour’s 
presence ? I thought just that one sentence 
would last me a long time.” 

“ How Harvey Nicholls has improved ! ” 
said Isabel. “ I feel something akin to ad- 


82 


LINKS OF GOLD 


miration for him when I think how he has 
persevered and been determined to keep on 
doing his part, until now the really pitiful 
confusion that used to assail him whenever 
he tried to speak or pray has gone entirely.” 

“Did he used to be confused?” asked 
Pauline. “ I wonder every one is n’t, but I 
thought what he said in prayer was partic¬ 
ularly good.” 

“ Well, it used to be dreadful,” said Susie 
with a little involuntary spasm of laughter 
“ but he was bound to keep on. I remem¬ 
ber one night he tried to tell a little story at 
a children’s missionary meeting. The story 
was about two little boys, and before the 
story was half finished they were both girls, 
and poor Harvey had n’t noticed the change. 
And now he offers a prayer that helps us 
all.” 

“ Oh, dear me! ” suddenly exclaimed 
Pauline. “ Here I’ve gone right past Miss 
Curlew’s, and forgotten all about my little 
bows! ” 


ONE TUESDAY EVENING 


*3 


u Nevermind, we ’ll all go back with you,” 
said Susie ; “ it’s only a little way, and we 
should like the walk. Blinda never goes 
out Tuesday evening ; she understands that 
is the evening I must always have for my¬ 
self.” 

Back they trooped to Miss Curlew’s and 
in they all went. 

“ Good evening, my dear young ladies,” 
said a little lady behind the counter; “so 
you ’ve all been to meeting to-night, I take 
it; who led ? ” 

“ Miss Trenton led to-night,” said Susie. 
“ The meeting was lovely.” 

“ Ah, you ’ve come for your bows, Miss 
Van Werter, have n’t you ? ” Miss Curlew 
went on. “Well, they’re all done; and 
very pretty bows they are, too. You like 
pretty things, do n’t you, my dear? Well, 
I remember your mother, she was a very 
pretty creature herself—I think you favor 
her considerable in features—and very fond 
she was of nice, tasteful things in dress. 


84 


LINKS OF GOLD 


But she was very fond of a good meeting, 
too, just as I see you are, my dear. I can 
remember sitting just back of her at a prayer¬ 
meeting one night and noticing how beauti¬ 
ful and white her neck was down under her 
hair, and she grew quite affected while the 
minister was praying. See what a thing it 
is to have a good memory, my dear. It must 
have been all of twelve years ago I sat be¬ 
hind your mother that night, and our old 
minister, Dr. Preston, was praying for the 
unconverted—those who were greatly be¬ 
loved but were out of Christ. And I can see 
now how the pink went creeping over your 
mother’s white neck until it was all pink 
as a shell, and the dear lady was crying 
softly with her handkerchief before her face. 
Well, well, you was a little mite then, and 
I do n’t suppose remember anything about 
your mother. Do you remember her, my 
dear ? She must have been in heaven all of 
ten years, I should say.” 

Pauline replied that she had some recol- 


ONE TUESDAY EVENING 


85 

lection of her mother, as she was eight years 
old when she died, but she was sorry to say 
the remembrance grew distant and uncer¬ 
tain as the years went by. Then, as the 
bows were neatly ready in tissue paper, 
deftly tucked in at one end and tightly 
twisted at the other, Pauline took the soft 
parcel and the girls bade Miss Curlew good 
night. 

“ It’s just impossible to feel provoked with 
Miss Curlew, she is such a gentle, kind- 
hearted little woman,” said Isabel as they 
walked away; “ but how she does run on ! ” 

“ They say she’s as good as gold to her 
trying old father,” replied Rebecca, “ and as 
patient as a saint. I could n’t find it in my 
heart, as Isabel says, to get provoked with 
her, but she does go on pretty briskly once 
she begins talking. I hope she did n’t try 
you, Poppy.” 

“ Oh, no,” Pauline said, “ I did n’t mind 
her at all. I’m quite used to her, you 
know.” But her companions noticed that 


86 


LINKS OF GOLD 


she seemed sober and a little less inclined 
to talk than usnal. 

At the next corner they met Arthur 
Fredricks, Addie’s brother. 

“ Ah, good evening, young ladies,” he 
said, lifting his hat and beaming on them in 
the strong gleam of an arc light. “ Whither 
away, my bonny birds ? ” he asked with the 
familiarity of an old friend. 

“ We’ve been to meeting,” said Isabel 
quietly. 

Arthur gave a sweeping glance around, 
which rested at last upon Pauline. 

“ Well, ’pon my honor !” he exclaimed. 
“What was the subject?” he asked, going 
naturally around to Susie Follansbee’s 
side. 

“ It was the story of the virgins,” answered 
Susie promptly ; “ the story of five who took 
oil for their lamps, and of five who had no 
oil. You remember it,” Susie added, “ and 
how at midnight the Bridegroom came, and 
five poor virgins were shut out.” 


ONE TUESDAY EVENING 


87 


“ Y-e-s, I remember,” said Arthur. “ I 
suppose you lassies take that word for word.” 

“ Indeed we do,” said Isabel; “ and so do 
your good father and mother, and Dr. Comp¬ 
ton, and scores and thousands of learned, 
intelligent men and women everywhere. 
We take it for just what it illustrates. So 
do n’t be foolish, Arthur, and go pretending 
to take side issues to what has stood intact 
all these years.” 

“ Oh, I believe the Bible from cover to 
cover,” said Arthur; “ but you little girls 
take everything so literally Still,” he 
added with the superior air and kindly con¬ 
descension of an older brother, “ I suppose it 
helps make things run smoothly to take 
these things unquestioningly.” 

“ Well, I guess if you had two little twin 
brothers to 4 run,’ ” said Susie in a tone of 
superior assurance in turn, and that nearly 
convulsed the others for a moment, and 
they set out every blessed day of their lives 
to ‘ run ’ everything and everybody around 


88 


LINKS OF GOLD 


them according to their own little monkey 
conceits, you would find it a surpassing 
comfort to accept very literally whatever 
proves a real support and aid. It may seem 
1 man-ny,’ as little Benny said one day in 
place of manly, to question the exact literal¬ 
ness of this passage and that promise, but I 
often catch up my Bible, beside my regular 
reading, and open to what my eye may fall 
on, and I 7iever fail to find something to 
lean right on. So you must n’t go telling 
me, Mr. Arthur Fredricks, that in my need 
I take the Bible too unquestioningly. I’m 
only too glad to ! ” 

“ Oh, you ’re all right, Susie,” Arthur 
replied so kindly that the drift of conversa¬ 
tion changed a little, for Susie’s stout voice 
had trembled a bit as she concluded. 

Entering her room for the night Pauline 
said to herself: “I suppose poor mamma 
was crying that prayer-meeting night about 
papa’s being 1 out of Christ.’ I ’ve heard 
that expression twice to-night. But those 


ONE TUESDAY EVENING g„ 

girls talked about religion and the Bible 
just as if both were a natural, indispensable, 
and pleasant part of their lives. If that is 
the way a Christian life works, helping and 
cheering people, I think it must be a pretty 
—good—thing—to—have—’ ’ 


CHAPTER VII 


THE RESCUE OF THE DOLES 

It wanted but ten days to the time set for 
the sale. Two chests in Mr. Van Werter’s 
house were full of beautifully made articles, 
as it had been thought advisable to carry 
things there as they were received or finished. 
Jack Lorraine was at home for a day or two 
and Rebecca knew would be on hand when the 
important days for the girls came around. 
But she still thought it would be better to 
keep quiet about the plans which they had 
succeeded wonderfully in keeping from him. 

It happened that Pauline and Rebecca 
had met in the street that morning, only ten 
days distant from the sale, and at Rebecca’s 

request, Pauline went home with her to see 
90 


THE RESCUE OF THE DOLLS Q! 

the four dolls that Dora had finished dress- 
ing the day before. 

“ We will go up to my room,” Rebecca 
said, “ as Jack will be in the sitting-room, 
and poor little Dora has managed faithfully 
to keep everything out of sight. But I know 
where she hides the dolls.” 

Accordingly the two girls went in, and, 
seeing nothing of Jack, went immediately 
np-stairs. Rebecca opened the door of her 
room, then started and looked back with a 
queer little grimace at Pauline. There sat 
Jack, a beautifully dressed doll dangling on 
each knee, and two others sitting in state on 
chairs placed close beside him. 

“ Such a family! ” he said, smiling 
blandly. “ You will excuse my getting up, 

I know, Pauline, for you see I could n’t with¬ 
out disturbing my little ones. Sit down, 
ladies, sit right down and tell me all the 
news. When does the fair open ? ” 

u What are you talking about ? ” asked 
Rebecca, looking at him with well-feigned 


9 2 


LINKS OF GOLD 


astonishment. “ And do be careful of Dora’s 
dolls,” she added ; “ she ’s been dressing 
them with extreme care. Are there four of 
them ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, this four and four more, and 
still another four,” said Jack, “ and my! 
won’t the doll table make a pretty show ? 
Say, can’t I be doormat or something when 
the time comes ? or perhaps I’d better be 
the ticket man. You ’ve no idea how I’d 
rake the money in. You ’d better say ‘ Yes,’ 
and done with it, for you know you can’t 
get along without the junior pill of the 
family when the time arrives. You should n’t 
have been afraid to tell your uncle about it 
and had his invaluable assistance from the 
outset, but fortunately I’m one of those for¬ 
giving chaps that won’t lay it up against 
you—trying to be so astounding sly. Now 
guess how long I’ve known all about this 
pleasing little scheme ? ” 

“ Jack, what nonsense are you rattling on 
about? ” asked Rebecca, while Pauline took 


THE RESCUE OF THE DOLLS 


93 


up tlie dolls, exclaiming over the loveliness 
of their beautifully made clothes. 

“Did Dora really dress these all by her¬ 
self ? ” she asked. 

“ Yes, these I believe are entirely her 
work,” Rebecca replied. 

“ Are your tidies all made, Pauline ? ” 
Jack asked with an air of solicitude. “ Be¬ 
cause if they ’re not I ’ll have a whole regi¬ 
ment of fellows down from the ’varsity to¬ 
morrow, and you’d just be surprised to see 
the way they can knit and crochet. Tom 
Collins heels his own socks in a way to 
delight your heart; does it in the dark. 
And oh, before I forget it, the class orchestra 
sends its compliments and will be very glad 
to furnish music at nothing an evening ; 
gives its services, you know. Awfully 
generous, philanthropic lot, that orchestra.” 

“ Pauline, will you explain things to this 
lunatic ? ” asked Rebecca, smiling in spite 
of herself. “ He seems to have some pecul¬ 
iar phantasm coursing through his brain. 


LINKS OF GOLD 


94 

I ’ve heard that such fixed notions never 
should be combated.” 

“ Then another thing,” Jack went on, 
ignoring Rebecca’s little speech entirely, 
“ you see I do n’t want to forget any of the 
messages the fellows sent. Maitland’s father 
has a splendid conservatory, and Will sends 
his best wishes and wants to be informed 
whether it was seventy-five or a hundred 
little posies you wanted sent, to sell at ten 
cents apiece. A posy is a small bunch of 
flowers, you know, and Maitland had just as 
soon make it an even hundred as not. 
Better make it a hundred, ladies, for do let’s 
make a success of the thing as long as we’ve 
gone about it! ” 

“ Dora ’ll just about cry her eyes out to 
see you handling her dolls,” said Rebecca. 
“ She was going to let you see them, I 
know, when she got ready, but the poor 
little thing wanted to surprise you and show 
them herself. Now see how you ’ll spoil all 
her fun.” 


THE RESCUE OF THE DOLLS 


95 


“ Not a bit of it,” said Jack; “ the dolls 
can all be demurely in place before Dora 
returns from school. 

“The whole story # of how I found yon out 
is a very simple one. One of the dolls wrote 
me a letter. It said this : ‘ Dear, kind Dr. 
Jack Lorraine ; reverend sir/—that’s be¬ 
cause I’m a reverend senior/’ interpolated 
Jack,—“ ‘ If you will please call at your 
father’s house and proceed to the attic store¬ 
room and open the great green sheet chest, 
where comforters are kept in the summer, 
but are very scarce in the winter, you will 
find there four young ladies who want lib¬ 
erating the worst way. Pray come soon and 
rescue ns ! There have been ever so many 
others of us here, but they have mysteriously 
disappeared, one by one.’ 

“ Even had not a few hours of home life 
been close upon me,” continued Jack, “ I 
should have flown at once to their rescue. 
Now you must admit that facts are stubborn 
things. Home I rushed, to the green chest I 


9 6 


LINKS OF GOLD 


repaired. Now, if you think best to return 
these festive creatures to their dark retreat, 
why, all I can say is, ‘ I ’ve done faithfully 
what I could for them.’*” 

Rebecca was about to speak when Jack 
again took the floor. “ Only one word more, 
ladies. If you will allow me a conspicuous 
corner of one of your tables, it will afford me 
great pleasure to contribute, for the delecta¬ 
tion and benefit of visitors and patrons at 
the coming fair, a dozen boxes of ‘ Lorraine 
Junior’s new Patent Pills for Insomnia,’ six 
red flannel ‘ Lorraine Chest Protectors,’ a 
scalpel in a velvet case, also a small case of 
curiously formed bones.” 

Pauline burst into a peal of laughter 
in which Rebecca good-naturedly joined. 
“ Jack,” she said, “ you ’re a jewel! You 
can’t think how delighted I am to be saved 
the trouble of explaining our project to you. 
Now, no matter how you found us out, only 
please do n’t say too much out in town for 
a day or two, because we ’re intending to 


THE RESCUE OF THE DOLLS 


97 

call on a few persons we want to invite 
specially to be present at our sale; not fair, 
if you please, Jack, but sale, and we would 
like to notify them before they hear partic¬ 
ularly of it outside. The whole project is 
Pauline’s. She originated and proposed it, 
the rest of us only falling into line at 
her call.” 

Pauline flushed at Rebecca’s generous meed 
of credit. “ Oh, I only roughly outlined a 
kind of scheme, you know, Rebecca, that 
occurred to me because my conscience 
pricked at something Dr. Compton said in 
a sermon. I do n’t take any praise to my¬ 
self at all, for what could I have accom¬ 
plished without the help of the girls in carry¬ 
ing out my very imperfect idea of doing a 
little good in the world ? ” 

Jack Lorraine’s handsome face straight¬ 
way wore a puzzled, quizzical expression, 
while his dark eyes drew up in a suppressed 
smile. 

“ Far be it from me,” he began patroniz- 


9 8 


LINKS OF GOLD 


ingly, “ to interfere in the least with the 
spirit of so commendable an effort, and 
believe me, not even to an idiot that does n’t 
know what his name is, will I divulge a word 
of this affair until you priestesses of all 
charity, say, ‘ Speak.’ But I ’ve always 
been afraid there was a tendency toward a 
mild kind of fanaticism among Dr. Comp¬ 
ton’s young people, that heretofore has not 
appeared to have touched you, Pauline. 
Not that I think it will harm any one,” he 
added benignly, “ only I had considered 
you an exception to the general rule.” 

“ Now, Jack, please do n’t talk that way,” 
said Rebecca anxiously. “ You know very 
well there’s no one respects everything 
pertaining to religion, and the church, and 
all that, more than you always have, so 
where’s the use in talking against your own 
convictions ? ” 

Jack laid the dolls carefully on the lounge, 
put his hands in his pockets and began 
pacing to and fro. “ Well, now, honestly, 


THE RESCUE OF THE DOLLS 


99 


Becca,” he said, and this time with a gen¬ 
uine ring in his voice, “ I confess to being 
on the fence of late with reference to some 
things that np to a short time ago I regarded 
as simply not to be questioned. But you 
see the more a fellow gets out into the world 
and hears other men talk, and some of 
those young theologues are mighty sharp, 
brainy chaps, you can’t help wondering if 
some preconceived ideas may not be all at 
fault, and if after all we have read our Bibles 
understanding^ and caught at the real 
meaning of its teachings.” 

Rebecca was too wise to attempt cutting 
short Jack’s unwelcome reasonings, but 
Pauline had been to another meeting and 
confessed herself interested in what she had 
heard. 

So Rebecca sat passively listening and 
hoping that once Jack had delivered his 
opinions he would be content so long as no 
counter remarks were offered. 

“ Then you do n’t think it ’$ all so very 


IOO 


LINKS OF GOLD 


important?” said Pauline inquiringly, and 
Rebecca caught the slight accent of relief in 
her tones, in anticipation of the reply she 
evidently expected. 

“ Oh, I did n’t say that, Pauline, not by 
any means; I only own frankly that at 
present I am on the fence, as I said, as re¬ 
gards my convictions on some points I once 
thought admitted of no questioning as to 
their meaning. It makes a very interesting 
study,” he added with the slight air of as¬ 
sumption a bright, young student is often 
given to affecting, “ and one finds great 
diversion in reading up different trained 
intellects on these topics. I agree heartily 
with that Frenchman, Renan, that had 
there been no God revealed to man, we 
should have to invent one. Men must have 
some object of worship, and some kind of 
sacred belief has been fused into the heart 
from the earliest history of the race, so be¬ 
coming a necessity to man’s nature. But 
just what to accept as one’s settled belief 


THE RESCUE OF THE DOLLS 


IOI 


concerning certain doctrinal points, aye, 
there ’s the rub ! ” 

“ I should n’t suppose it would be very 
hard for a thinking, intelligent man to find 
out his own convictions,” said Rebecca. 
“ If you intend to be a physician, and you 
seem to have no difficulty in believing you 
are, I only hope that, as you once said you 
meant to, you will follow in papa’s footsteps. 
I once heard papa say he had had to turn 
minister at more than one sick bed and 
comfort poor souls when there was nothing 
more that could be done for the body. I ’ve 
often thought,” she added, “ I would rather 
be a doctor of medicine than of divinity, be¬ 
cause then one so often has an opportunity 
of curing both soul and body. With all 
your statements, Jack, I believe that if this 
very day you were called to aid some pool 
dying creature, who begged to know how he 
could meet his God in peace, you would 
direct him straight to the Saviour of souls, 
and all little useless questions of this and 


102 


LINKS OF GOLD 


that actual belief would never occur for a 
moment.” 

“ Well, now that is very true, Becca. I 
do n’t oppose a word of that; at the same 
time I am inclining more and more to study 
out the Bible for myself. But you’d just 
be surprised to hear my sturdy defence of 
everything I’ve been taught on these sub¬ 
jects when I’m talking with the fellows. 
Oh, I ’m never going to let go of the main 
beliefs ; you need n’t be afraid.” 

“ Then do n’t, pray, talk as if you were 
questioning them, brother mine.” 

“ And now,” said Jack in a different, 
lighter tone, “ having demonstrated my 
knowledge of the important affair soon to 
take place, and having, as it were, pledged 
myself to keep a little quiet about it, until 
implored to do otherwise,—as I soon shall 
be,—and furthermore having expressed my 
desire to render substantial aid, may I ask 
the object to which your swiftly in-rolling 
funds are to be devoted ? ” 


RESCUE OF THE DOLLS 


103 


“ That is but partially decided,” said 
Pauline as Jack looked to her for reply. 
“We have agreed among ourselves that in 
certain local directions our humble aid would 
be very acceptable, and as these needs most 
strongly present themselves we hope to ex¬ 
tend help and relief to some truly deserving 
objects.” 

This was Saturday; a week from the 
next Wednesday the sale was to open for 
two succeeding evenings. On Sunday morn¬ 
ing Dr. Compton preached a strong sermon 
from the text, “We will not have this man to 
reign over us.” In forcible language he de¬ 
picted the different gods forever striving to 
crowd from his rightful place in human 
hearts the Lord, Christ Jesus. The world, 
love of the world, and chiefly resistance of a 
Saviour’s leadership, were constantly induc¬ 
ing this unspoken, yet decided protest, “ We 
will not have this man to reign over us.” 

He startled some of his hearers by say¬ 
ing, “ Disguise it as you may before your 


104 


LINKS OF GOLD 


fellow-men and also to your own hearts, 
there are those before me this day who are 
in reality saying these forbidding words 
concerning the gentle Christ, and both the 
Father in heaven and the Son know who 
yon are. And while yon maintain that at¬ 
titude toward the Saviour, the goodness of 
God still enfolds you like a garment, for his 
sun shines alike on the evil and the good, 
yet remember, your soul is in danger, for it 
is a perilous thing to be out—of—Christ.” 

“ Dear me!” thought Pauline, “ I wonder 
how many times I have got to hear that last 
ominous expression. And is it really true, 
I wonder, that unless we are Christians we 
occupy a position that is perilous? Dr. 
Compton does n’t often preach in that way. 
He generally dwells on the love and com¬ 
passion of the Saviour.” 

“ Papa,” said Pauline that day at dinner, 
u do n’t you think Dr. Compton sometimes 
has a dreadfully severe way of putting 
things ? ” 


THE RESCUE OF THE BOLLS 105 

“ I think he always says what is true, my 
daughter,” was the quiet reply. 

Pauline said nothing more then, but after¬ 
ward when she was by herself she mur¬ 
mured reflectively : “I wonder if papa Van 
Werter is a Christian ? One of these days 
I mean to ask him. Only I ’m afraid when 
I do there might be a scene. I never have 
had what might be called a scene with 
papa.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


INVITATIONS 

Two or three days had flown. The time 
had come for spreading abroad the fact that 
a sale of useful and fancy articles would take 
place at the residence of Mr. Norman Van 
Werter on Wednesday and Thursday even¬ 
ings of the week following. Jack had re¬ 
ceived a note and his tongue was unloosed, 
and he assured the young ladies in reply 
that he was inviting all friends he met to be 
present at the sale, to bring all the money 
they possibly could, and to invite every one 
they knew to come, within a radius of ten 
miles. 

Moreover, it proved true that an orchestra 

of college lads had volunteered their serv- 
106 


TNVITA TIONS 


io 7 

ices for the two evenings, for, to her sur¬ 
prise, Pauline was sent a note in which the 
leader had begged of Jack to be informed 
accurately at what time the last train at night 
would leave Verona Roads for the city. 

“ I Ve written him that the 10.15 will be 
just his figure,” wrote Jack. 

The meeting Pauline had proposed for a 
few final considerations was being held at 
her home, the five friends all present in the 
library. 

“ Oh, I know how Jack discovered our 
movements,” Pauline said. “ Papa told me 
a few days ago that he had seen his friend, 
Captain Maitland, and spoken to him about 
getting some flowers for our sale, and papa 
said he showed a good deal of interest and 
asked several questions concerning the affair, 
then sent his best wishes for success, and said 
he should take great satisfaction in sending 
me quite a present of flowers from his con¬ 
servatories. I was stupid not to think of it 
right away, but of course Captain Maitland 


108 LINKS OF GOLD 

told his son Will, who lost no time in speak¬ 
ing of it to Jack.” 

“ Yes,” said Rebecca, “ that is all plain 
enough, and Jack knows of old that things 
were often concealed in the green sheet 
chest, so it was easy enough to surprise us 
as he did. However, I do n’t care a pin. 
We kept things pretty well from milord, 
considering, and Dora was delighted at the 
praise he bestowed upon her dolls.” 

“ Now, about those personal invitations,” 
said Pauline ; “ there is old Colonel Pelling- 
ton; who had better see him ? And there ’s 
Miss Probisher; who had better call on 
her?” 

“ Mamma suggested something to me this 
morning,” said Addie Fredricks, “ that I had 
n’t thought of before. Suppose any one 
should offer us a contribution ; what had we 
better do ? accept it ? ” 

“ W-e- 11 ,” said Pauline thoughtfully, 
“ that had n’t occurred to me either, and 
really, for a small affair like this I think we 


INVITATIONS 


109 

are going to have about all we should be 
likely to sell. Still, we could n’t refuse a 
kindly offer, and when you think of it, the 
flowers and the music are donations from 
outside.” 

“ Yes, and Jack’s bones,” added Rebecca. 

“ Oh, we must in all courtesy take any¬ 
thing that is offered,” said Isabel Trenton. 
“ At the same time it can easily be under¬ 
stood that articles are not solicited.” 

“ That will be the best way,” said Pauline. 
“ And now about Colonel Pellington.” 

“ What’s the use of asking him ? ” asked 
Isabel. “ He is rich, it is true, very rich 
they say, but he never visits anywhere, 
never is seen in a public assembly, seems to 
ridicule church-going and never has been in¬ 
side of a church since any one can remem¬ 
ber.” 

“ Yes, but this is not a church affair, as 
Rebecca once said,” answered Addie ; “ and 
what we want to do is to give ample oppor¬ 
tunity to help us to people who can do so if 


no 


LINKS OF GOLD 


they will. And then as an old and promi¬ 
nent member of the community, I think it 
would be highly proper to give the colonel 
a special invitation. It might please him ; 
who knows ? ” 

“ Another thing,” said Susie ; “ we all 
happen to belong to the same society, and 
we do n’t want to give this enterprise the 
idea of being at all a denominational affair. 
I wish we could say right out that it is 
simply a movement begun and carried out 
in the spirit of the Master. That is so, 
is n’t it, Pauline ? ” 

“ Yes, certainly, Susie. That was dis^ 
tinctively my idea in proposing it.” 

“ Then I think,” continued Susie, “ that 
without saying so in a way to seem queer at 
all, we can give something of that impres¬ 
sion in inviting the very few we intend to 
see personally.” 

“ Well, I move,” said Rebecca, “ that 
Pauline and Susie call on Colonel Pelling- 
ton ; Susie will know just what to say, and 


JNVITA TIONS 


ill 


Poppy had best go, because if she didn’t he 
might not consider the invitation as hailing 
exactly from headquarters.” 

11 And I move that Pauline and Rebecca 
call on Miss Frobisher,” said Addie. “ They 
may not exactly enjoy it,” and Addie’s 
eyes danced, “ but the call, ‘ bitter but 
wholesome/ may be productive of much 
good.” 

Miss Katherine Frobisher, one of the 
chief landowners of the place, occasionally 
attended Dr. Compton’s church, and quite 
as often was seen at the chapel services. 
Whether she had any settled religious be¬ 
lief no one knew. She lived alone with her 
servant and housekeeper in a great house 
near the park, dressed richly, rode often in 
solitary state in the finest carriage the local 
livery stable afforded, and was known to 
have contributed spasmodically to charitable 
objects. She was a tall, fine-looking, silent 
woman, whose reserved, repellant manner 
had secured her what she seemed most to 


I 12 


LINKS OF GOLD 


desire, almost complete isolation from her 
fellow-beings. 

“ I think it might be kind to invite Miss 
Curlew,” said Pauline. “ The little woman 
is fast growing old, is sensitive and easily 
pleased. I might drop in on my way to 
meeting Tuesday evening, just before our 
time of opening, and say we should all be 
happy to see her.” 

Every girl of the four was inwardly re¬ 
joiced at hearing Pauline speak of attending 
the meeting as a matter of course, especially 
on the eve of the sale when she might easily 
have made her busy state an excuse for 
remaining at home. But Isabel only an¬ 
swered quickly, “ Oh, yes, that would be 
very kind, Poppy; we won’t let you forget 
it.” Then it was arranged that Dr. and 
Mrs. Compton, and the chapel minister and 
his wife should be invited, from neither of 
whom any entrance fee would be accepted. 

“I am expecting Cousin Madeline the 
last of the week,” said Pauline, “ I doubt 


IN VITA TIONS 


113 

if Maidie ever attended a prayer-meeting in 
her life, but I do n’t think she will have the 
least objection to going with us. Madeline’s 
mother was very, very good, just like my 
mamma, but Maidie says that is the reason 
she died young. I think Maidie would be 
actually afraid of becoming too good. She 
says saints of any description never live 
long ; ” and Pauline’s little hand went up to 
her face, leaving only her laughing eyes 
visible. 

“ Dear me ! ” said Isabel, who invariably 
reflected a smile from other faces. “ In 
the delightful, sunny ideas that prevail 
nowadays in connection with a Christian 
life, I thought everybody had dropped that 
old-time notion that religion is n’t a thing 
to live by. And if one but lives aright, 
death is only the entrance into a thousand 
times happier life than even this one.” 

“ You really believe that, do n’t you, 
Isabel? ” said Pauline a little curiously. 

“ Believe it? Why, I know it, actually 
8 


LINKS OF GOLD 


114 

know it, Poppy dear, beyond the shadow of 
doubt.” 

“ Well, I must say I think it is beautiful 
to make it such an everyday affair,” said 
Pauline, a wistful expression stealing into 
her face. 

“ The truth is,” began Susie’s cheerful 
voice, “ the cause of Christ often suffers 
because of utterly false ideas entertained by 
people who know almost nothing of the 
value and comfort of being a Christian. 
But people everywhere are coming up to a 
better understanding of these things. Our 
young folks are helping largely to prove 
what true Christianity means, and as time 
goes on it is going to be more and more the 
habit of the world to follow Jesus.” 

Then the girls went their way, promising 
to make their calls at once. 

At Colonel Pellington’s Pauline and Susie 
were received with distant, stately courtesy. 
Upon making known their errand the 
gentleman inquired with pronounced delib- 


IN VITA TIONS 


”5 

eration, “ And what, may I be permitted 
to ask, is the particular cause to be aided 
by the proceeds of this sale at which I am 
invited to be present? ” 

The studied inquiry might or might not 
have contained a bit of veiled irony calcu¬ 
lated to confuse the youthful callers, but it 
only acted as a stimulant to self-possessed 
Susie. 

“We hope,” she said in a straightforward, 
unabashed way, “ to establish a little fund 
to be strictly devoted to doing good right 
here in Verona Roads. We have heard of a 
painful case, where a worthy mother is un¬ 
able to secure proper treatment for a suffer¬ 
ing child who may be deformed for life if not 
aided. We know also of an honest, steady 
man whose little family are reduced to great 
straits because of an infirmity shutting him 
off entirely from ability to work. We do 
not expect to do great things, but,” Susie 
added with one of the most genial of smiles, 
“ every Christian who is so disposed can do 


LINKS OF GOLD 


116 

some good in such a great, needy world as 
this.” 

“ You have found out the needs of the 
world early.” 

The dry, caustic remark troubled Susie 
not one whit. “ Well, I have had to shoul¬ 
der some rather unusual obligations early,” 
she said cheerily, “ because of having to give 
up my mother several years ago, and partly 
assuming the care of a little family, but I 
am aware that my knowledge of the world 
is still exceedingly limited. We shall hope 
to see you next Wednesday evening and 
Thursday also, if convenient,” she said pleas¬ 
antly, rising to conclude the call. 

“ There are five of us interested,” said 
Pauline, “ and we thought that, as one of 
the older citizens of Verona Roads, it was 
only proper that you and a few others be 
specially notified and invited to be present 
at our sale.” 

“ I thank you very sincerely for your con¬ 
sideration. I presume your fath r antici- 


INVITA TIONS 


117 

pates considerable enlivening from this sale, 
Miss Van Werter? ” 

“ Oh, papa was terribly opposed to some 
features of it at first,” said Pauline, her face 
breaking into a dimpling smile. “ He would 
not listen for the longest while to the pro¬ 
posed admission price of twenty-five cents, 
but after he found how anxiously I had set 
my heart on making a success of our little 
attempt, he finally yielded, but not very 
willingly, I must confess. Papa holds to 
fine, old-fashioned ideas about a man’s house 
being his castle and free to all his friends, 
but this is an exceptional case, I tell him, 
and he can play the house is mine for a 
couple of evenings, so I can be as calculating 
as I please.” 

Her merry look almost drew the reflection 
of an answering smile from the set, yet reg¬ 
ular features of Colonel Pellington’s Roman¬ 
like face. 

“ Your father has the knightly instincts 
of a more chivalrous age than this,” he said 


LINKS OF GOLD 


118 

with a grave salute as the young ladies 
turned away. 

“ I feel like pussy-cat Mole that jumped 
onto a coal, and in her best petti tote burned 
a great hole,” said Pauline, her face twitch¬ 
ing. “ How do you feel, Susie? ” 

“ Just as natural as can be,” said Susie 
with a comfortable little shrug. “ Nobody 
trod on my skirts, for I never pretended I 
knew the whole world by heart. That was 
our dear friend’s own idea. But—remember 
I told you—I should n’t be surprised one 
atom if Colonel Felix Pellington appeared 
at our sale as large as life next Wednesday 
evening, and enjoyed himself, too.” 

“ Oh, nor I either,” laughed Pauline. 
“ I think he might come out of respect to 
papa and his chivalrous age, but he can ’t 
get in for less than twenty-five cents during 
the temporary transfer of the house to my 
ownership. I noticed,” she said, growing 
sober, “ that you managed to speak of it as 
coming under the head of a Christian’s duty 


IN VITA TIONS 


119 

to do some good in the world, Susie, and I 
thought it was brave of you, too.” 

The next day Pauline and Rebecca called 
on Miss Katherine Frobisher, one of the 
largest taxpayers of Verona Roads. Miss 
Frobisher received them in a parlor filled 
with elegant and massive furniture, and was 
herself the picture of an unbending, impos¬ 
ing dame as she settled herself in a deep- 
seated, sculptured chair, slightly adjusted 
her heavy silk dress, and waited to be in¬ 
formed as to the cause of so unusual an 
event as a call from two blooming young 
girls. 

Once made acquainted with their project 
and told simply and politely, as Colonel 
Pellington had been, that a few persons 
seemed entitled to a special invitation, Miss 
Frobisher showed so decided though digni¬ 
fied an interest in the object of their visit, 
that Pauline quite surprised herself by giv¬ 
ing in detail the manner in which it had 
been started, her own blind wish to do some- 


120 


LINKS OF GOLD 


thing of use in the world, the discussions 
and decisions to which the idea had given 
rise, the hearty cooperation of her friends 
and their hope of making a success of what 
they meant should be a very pleasant occa¬ 
sion. 

Miss Frobisher thanked them in the for¬ 
mal manner natural to her for honoring her 
with an invitation, said she should not for¬ 
get it, but was careful, the girls thought, to 
make no promise of being present. 

u I suppose,” she said in an unsmiling 
way, “ that you young ladies are quite en¬ 
thusiastic in religious efforts, and satisfied 
as to such conclusions as you may have 
reached concerning religion itself.” 

Pauline’s eyes fell, but Rebecca replied 
modestly, yet without hesitation: “I do 
think it is the thing that makes life bright 
and—satisfying. ’ ’ 

u I am very glad to hear any one speak so 
decidedly on any subject,” Miss Frobisher 
replied, “ there is really so little of which 


INVITA TIONS 


12 


we can speak with certainty. I suppose you 
have the feeling that is apt to be strong with 
the young, that nothing could shake your 
faith, no matter what might come? ” 

“ No,” said Rebecca, “ I do not think God 
would let my faith be shaken, no matter 
what might come.” 

“ Well, faith is a beautiful thing,” said 
the lady. 

Throughout the call both Pauline and 
Rebecca fancied they saw a longing look in 
Miss Frobisher’s eyes ; “just as if a hungry 
soul was looking through them,” Rebecca 
said on the way home. 

“ I’m afraid the poor lady has had some 
kind of a past that was sad,” said Pauline, 
“ and it may be she let go some of her faith 
or had none to help her. She seemed to me 
almost morbid on the subject.” 

“ I do n’t see,” Rebecca said, speaking 
with some force, “ what in the world any one 
who has no faith in Christ has to fall back 
upon when trouble comes.” 


122 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ Well, I should hate to grow old without 
it,” said Pauline brightly. “ It may be all 
well enough to slip along while one is young 
and there is everything to enjoy, but I think 
something of the kind must be needed as 
people grow old.” 

Rebecca did not want of all things to 
“ preach,” neither could she let such an op¬ 
portunity pass for saying a word for the 
greatest comfort and safeguard of her life, 
so she only replied in the same bright way 
in which her friend had spoken :— 

“ I find it a lovely thing to have while I 
am young, Poppy dear.” 


CHAPTER IX 


PREPARATIONS 

On Saturday came Madeline Hunter, and 
Rebecca invited Pauline and her cousin to 
visit her on Monday evening to meet Addie 
Fredricks and Arthur, Isabel Trenton and 
Susie Follansbee. u A very informal com¬ 
pany,” Rebecca said, “ as we are so near an 
important occasion, but we ought first to get 
acquainted with Poppy’s cousin.” 

And an informal company it was, but 
sparkling and full of pleasure. The West¬ 
ern girl “ took amazingly” as Arthur Fred¬ 
ricks observed, yet it was noticeable that, 
as usual, wherever Susie Follansbee went, 
Arthur was soon at her side. 

The young ladies were delighted with 
3 


124 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Madeline Hunter, whose burry Western 
speech and affectionate, utterly unconven¬ 
tional manners were winsome in the extreme. 
She was a showy, brilliant girl, who showed 
her likings in a lively, demonstrative way. 
Once during the evening when Isabel was 
looking at a book of fine illustrations and 
said cordially, “ Oh, Miss Hunter, you must 
come and enjoy these with me,” the beauti¬ 
ful girl immediately knelt beside Isabel to 
look over the book with her, and said in a 
caressing way, “ It was so lovely of you to 
want me to share your pleasure in seeing 
these pictures ; and do n’t, please, call me 
‘ Miss Hunter ’ again.” 

And yet Madeline Hunter had a mind of 
her own, and had decided opinions, and an 
outspoken way of expressing them upon 
occasions. “ What a power for good—or 
otherwise, that young lady might become! ” 
thought Rebecca in her usual womanly 
way. 

The friends did not remain very late at 


PREPARA TIONS 


I2 5 

Rebecca’s borne, as Tuesday morning the 
preparations for tbe sale were to begin in 
earnest. They were to be completed so far 
as the rooms, the covering of the carpets and 
the coverings of the tables were concerned, 
leaving nothing to do on Wednesday but to 
put the different articles in place, which 
would be quite enough for the day of the 
sale. 

Accordingly on Tuesday the friends were 
all assembled at Pauline’s soon after nine in 
the morning. Jack Lorraine and Arthur 
Fredricks—who said his “ partner ” had 
given him a day off—and Daniel, the man 
who attended to the furnace and did outside 
chores at Mr. Van Werter’s, soon had the 
superfluous furniture moved up-stairs, the 
cotton coverings tacked with sufficient secu¬ 
rity over the rich carpets, and the five tables 
in place. Then Jack and Daniel departed 
in quest of a load of evergreens, while 
Arthur remained to assist in any work too 
difficult for the girls. 


126 


LINKS OF GOLD 


By the middle of the afternoon the tables 
were ready to receive the goods, and very 
pretty and festive they looked. The differ¬ 
ent colored cambrics were covered, part of 
them with coarse Swiss mull, part with wide 
meshed lace which Mr. Follansbee easily 
found and presented for this and perhaps 
subsequent occasions. Along the edges were 
tacked rows of evergreen, and a small tree 
at the end of each table was so placed that 
egress was just possible for the attendants. 

Hetty Shockmeyer was to send her candy 
early in the afternoon of the next day, as 
she wanted everything as fresh as possible; 
but one box of excellent confectionery had 
already arrived and, placed in glass dishes 
on a table covered with scarlet cambric and 
lace, was tempting indeed. 

“ Now we ’d better go home and get 
rested for meeting time,” said Addie, as the 
little finishing touches were about completed, 
and the articles already marked with prices 
could soon adorn the tasteful tables. 


PREPARA TIONS 


127 

Madeline Hunter started. “ Why, bless 
me! ” she exclaimed. “ Is it to a prayer¬ 
meeting you go, right in the midst of all 
this brightness ? ” 

“ Certainly it is,” replied Isabel, toward 
whom Madeline from the first had seemed 
particularly drawn. “ Wecouldn’tget along 
without our own special meetings, no matter 
what else was claiming temporary attention. 
That is the regular, vital engagement with 
us all.” 

“ And you go too ? ” she asked in a droop¬ 
ing, half-comical attitude, turning to Pau¬ 
line. 

The girls felt it rather a critical moment. 

“ Oh, yes, I go too, Maidie,” said Pauline, 
laughing a little. “ And I must go to¬ 
night,” she went on a bit hurriedly, “ be¬ 
cause on the way we are to stop and invite 
a little milliner to come here to-morrow. 
She’s an amusing little body that used to 
know my mamma. You must see her.” 

“ I never go to a prayer-meeting,” said 


28 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Madeline, a suspicion of resistance in her 
drawn-up figure. 

“ Oh, but yon will with us,” said Susie in 
a matter-of-fact tone, keeping busy mean¬ 
time pinning a bit of refractory evergreen to 
the lace, “ you see it’s grown an actual 
necessity to us little Verona Roaders. Why, 
I could no more do without our Young 
People’s meeting than I could without— 
without—why anything I must have ! ” 

“ And yet you all keep alive,” said Made¬ 
line with so comical a look it was impossible 
to help laughing at her. “ But I can’t im¬ 
agine,” she went on, “a prayer - meeting 
being a necessity to young people like us 
right in the midst of fresh, beautiful life ; ” 
and she spoke in a tone quite unlike the 
usually happy, unrestrained one natural to 
her. 

“Well, I can promise you, you would 
soon feel the necessity of it,” said Susie, 
turning around, her sunny face puckered 
into a deprecatory expression, “ if you had 


PREPARA TIONS 


129 

the responsibility resting chiefly upon you 
of training a pair of irresponsible, unthink¬ 
ing little midgets, who are always going to 
remember what sister Susie said, and did, 
and what she taught them. Oh, dear! ” 
she said suddenly, breaking into a half 
wailing kind of a laugh, “ did you notice, 
girls, that neither of them was at Sunday- 
school a week ago Sunday ?” 

“Yes,” said Isabel, “of course I noticed 
they were not in the primary department, 
and I’ve been on the point half a dozen 
times of asking where they were.” 

“Well, it ’s the greatest story! ” said 
Susie, bubbling with laughter at the recol¬ 
lection. “You see, once in a while those 
little peeps take a notion that they won’t go 
to Sunday-school. Now I intend that they 
shall be just as regular in their appearance 
at church and Sunday-school, when they are 
well, as they are at the kindergarten on 
week-days. Why should n’t they be, pray ? 

I should consider it a great weakness on my 
9 


130 


LINKS OF GOLD 


part to let them go irregularly to school 
during the week just because of a childish 
whim. 

“ Well, I never give Benny nor Billy 
mince pie; it is the one thing they never 
can eat, and it’s no food for children, any¬ 
way. I shouldn’t make mince pies only 
that papa is so fond of them, but the little 
boys understand, and so does Blinda, that 
for them it is always a forbidden luxury. 
But a week ago Sunday it rained quite hard 
at church time, you remember, and as I had 
so much of a cold I did n’t think it prudent 
to go out, and unfortunately papa forgot to 
bring home rubbers for Benny and Billy as 
he meant to Saturday. But it cleared beauti¬ 
fully during the morning and became dry 
underfoot, so I said we would all go to 
Sunday-school, I suppose greatly to the 
disgust of my small brothers, who had got 
their minds all made up to stay at home. 

“ Shortly before dinner time, as I sat 
reading, supposing that Benny and Billy 


PREPARA TIONS 


* 3 * 

were looking at picture books as I bad left 
them doing, Blinda came bustling into the 
room and said: ‘ What ’ll ye be thinkin’, 
Miss Susie, as thim little rascals has been 
up to now ? They’ve climbed on a cricket 
top a chair an’ fetched down a big mince pie 
off the shelf in the kitchen pantry, an’ the 
two o’ thim has eet half of it altogither.’ 

“ Well, I called a court and summoned the 
accused. They came with the proofs of their 
guilt all over them ; faces with spice lodged 
in dabs here and there and settled in the 
corners of their mouths. But the total lack 
of repentance in their hard little faces was 
what appalled me. 

“ ‘ Benny and Billy,’ I said, * did you get 
a mince pie and eat half of it ? ’ 

“ * Oh, we eat a good deal more ’n half 
right down,’ said Benny, with an alacrity 
that evidently did him good, and Billy of 
course echoed the confession with the same 
cheerfulness. And what do you think ? 
those little heathen boys had been eating all 


132 


LINKS OF GOLD 


that pie out of a solemn belief that it would 
make them so sick they could n’t go to 
Sunday-school! Think of that! 

“ ‘ Well,’ I told them, 1 you know what 
sister always does when you have eaten any¬ 
thing that hurts you. Now, you can both 
stay here a few moments, and if you go out 
of the room I shall tell papa.’ 

“ I went for the rhubarb and mixed two 
small, but strong, doses without any sugar. 
Oh, if there ’s anything on earth the small 
souls of my little brothers loathe more than 
any other it is rhubarb! But I never 
flinched,” said Susie, with a turn of her 
head indicative of invincible resolution, 
“ and by the time I got through administer¬ 
ing my corrective, papa came up to see what 
all the noise was about. Mince pie and 
rhubarb combined on the same countenances 
was too much for him, and I saw his shoulders 
shaking as he went down-stairs. But—I— 
do n’t—believe,” Susie concluded with slow 
emphasis, u my little brothers will employ 


PREPARA TIONS 


*33 

just that method for keeping away from 
Sunday-school again.” 

There had been ripples of suppressed 
amusement all through Susie’s narrative, 
but no one had wanted to interrupt her. 

“ Oh, I must see those twins,” said Made¬ 
line Hunter, her splendid teeth still showing 
with broad laughter. “ Poppy has told me 
ever so many funny things about them ; 
they must be a mighty enterprising pair. 
But it is a responsibility, is n’t it ? ” 

“ Yes, a very serious one, and I feel it,” 
said Susie; “ for with all their amusing 
pranks they must be taught judiciously. 
And, oh, dear! sometimes I feel so weak and 
tired ! Papa is just as good as he can be, but 
so easy ! But you must n’t make any mistake 
about papa,” Susie hastened to add, “he is 
decided enough in business affairs and a 
stanch Christian man; but I’m afraid Blinda 
hits it when she says, ‘ Thim little limbs 
comes it over their fayther like imperors 
iv’ry time.’ I suppose he always remem- 


134 


LINKS OF GOLD 


bers they have no mother,” said Susie with 
a sigh. 

“You must bring them to-morrow night,” 
said Pauline ; and Madeline Hunter said, 
.“Yes, do!” 

“ No, not to-morrow night,” said Susie; 
“ it would be too much of an anxiety on open¬ 
ing night; but Blinda can go out Thursday 
night as usual if she wants to, then perhaps 
they can come for a while with papa. He 
won’t.want to keep them here very long ; so 
he can take them home and try to put them 
to bed. Likely as not I shall find them cut¬ 
ting ’round trying every bed in the house 
when I get home.” 

“ Well, now, I must go,” said Rebecca, 
and her rising was the signal for a general 
dispersion. 

“We ’ll stop for you to-night,” said Isabel 
as she and Susie linked their arms at the 
steps. 

“ Yes, do,” said Pauline, “ I ’ll be all ready.” 

On the way to meeting Isabel Trenton 


PREPARA TIONS 


*35 


walked with Madeline Hunter, who made 
her appearance with Pauline, and Susie 
Follansbee with Pauline. 

“ Maidie thinks just as I do,” said Pauline, 
“ that it’s something entirely new to have 
one’s Christianity brought in as a natural 
part of one’s daily life and conversation. 
She says everything connected with religion 
has been a kind of horror to her, and yet 
my uncle has been a church member for 
years. But don’t you think older people, 
those of the past generation, grew up with 
more of an idea of reserve on such subjects 
than young people do now ? ” 

“ I have no doubt they did,” said Susie. 
“ It is onr Young People’s societies that are 
making religion more a recognized part of 
the lives of the young to-day.” 

“ I suppose my uncle scarcely notices in 
that great driving Chicago that when he 
occasionally goes to a prayer-meeting, Maidie 
has an excuse for not going, as she says she 
always has, but she attends church with her 


136 


LINKS OF GOLD 


father usually Sunday mornings. But to 
have a prayer-meeting a real assistance and 
pleasure to young people instead of a dread 
and a something to be avoided, Madeline 
does n’t seem to be able to understand at all. 
I think the idea half repels and half attracts 
poor impulsive Maidie. She looks at me in¬ 
credulously when I say and insist that I am 
getting almost fond of the meetings. I 
have n’t told her how they are carried on ; 
I thought I would n’t. The methods sur¬ 
prised me ; I think they will her. Here we 
are at Miss Curlew’s.” 

The little milliner was delighted with her 
invitation and said she had heard something 
about the expected sale and thought how 
pleasant it would be. She beamed on Pau¬ 
line and Susie with so pleased a face that 
they were thankful at having remembered 
her with a special request to be present. 

A little rosy-cheeked, dark-eyed maiden 
of sixteen sat in the leader’s chair when the 
girls reached the vestry. Madeline Hunter 


PREPARA T/ONS 


137 


gave Pauline one swift look of inquiry and 
astonishment when the composed little thing 
gave out the opening hymn. During the 
reading of the Scriptures by the same young 
girl Madeline sat motionless, one hand 
pressed hard against her cheek. She did 
not move when Addie Fredricks offered a 
short, feeling prayer. She still sat without 
moving when Isabel Trenton, bright, engag¬ 
ing Isabel, arose and began repeating a little 
poem beginning :— 

How do I love Thee ? 

Listen, dear Saviour, while my heart 
Tries a reply to frame— 

And as the sweet words flowed on, Madeline 
listened with tears in her eyes. 


CHAPTER X 


THE SALE 

Brisk fingers soon made the tables beauti¬ 
ful on Wednesday morning, the only ques¬ 
tion being how best to dispose the lavish 
display of articles. Dora Lorraine had 
done wonders with her dolls in every way. 
At the outset she went to two large toy 
houses in the city, escorted to the door by 
her mother. She told one of the proprietors 
at each establishment why she wanted some 
dolls, and succeeded in buying, at a merely 
nominal price, a dozen beautiful dolls left 
over from the holidays, one gentleman in¬ 
viting the interesting child to come again 
should she want more. 

To dress twelve dolls, some as babies in 
138 


THE SALE 


139 


long clothes, three as brides, and the rest 
in appropriate evening dresses, all in the 
course of six weeks, was too much, Mamma 
Lorraine thought, for any school girl to at¬ 
tempt unassisted. So Aunt Laura, who had 
taught Dora to sew beautifully, was invited 
to make a little visit and help the child, 
whom she always had regarded as “ her 
baby.” But, as Rebecca said, the four that 
Jack had discovered she had dressed entirely 
herself. They made a beautiful array on 
what came to be called “ the doll table,” and 
were ludicrously offset by eighteen diminu¬ 
tive dolls of another description, at none of 
which any one could look without bursting 
into laughter. 

Yet there was no small amount of genius 
discernible in Grandma Fredricks’ hickory 
nut penwipers. They wore tiny mob caps, 
ruffled around the edge, giving a peculiar 
piquancy to the little, wizened, sharp-nosed 
faces. “ Your grandfather printed the 
countenances, as his hands were steadier 


140 


LINKS OF GOLD 


than mine,” Grandma Fredricks wrote ; and 
quite a “ face artist ” the old gentleman 
showed himself, for with pen and ink he 
had produced some decidedly remarkable 
effects. The little black skirts, some of silk 
beruffled and beflounced, stood out nearly 
straight, with the layers of skirts beneath 
them. Others had outside skirts of black 
broadcloth, with dots of colored embroidery 
silks worked in. Some had lace crossed 
surplice or Quaker fashion across their prim 
little breasts, while others were adorned with 
pert little ruffles. 

“ Such a quantity of them ! ” Madeline 
Hunter exclaimed. “ Your grandma must 
have sat up late, I think, to get them up so 
exquisitely.” They were indeed a unique 
lot, and the doll table, with its many other 
juvenile goods, was sure of being well patron¬ 
ized. 

The table of useful articles, to be tended 
by Addie Fredricks and her Sunday-school 
scholar, Lora Torrence, would attract people 


THE SALE 


141 

with its sensible showing. Susie Follans- 
bee’s aprons were a study. There were 
long gingham aprons to delight the heart of 
a neat housekeeper, clothespin aprons of 
fancy tickings, pretty school aprons, fine 
aprons for cutting out work at the church 
sewing meeting, and a few dainty, expensive, 
laced-trimmed ones for fair waiters at a 
church sociable. These were offset by Pau¬ 
line Van Werter’s pretty caps and equally 
pretty knitted things, convenient for the 
head or the shoulders at the seaside or for 
the home piazza in summer. Some of these 
things were contributed by Susie’s out-of- 
town relatives, and added to these were 
several useful things from Mr. Follansbee’s 
city emporium. 

The table of fancy articles was one at 
which to linger reflectively. Isabel Trenton 
and her former pupil, Lily Snow, had charge 
of this table. Isabel’s father had opened 
wide his heart and his hand, in recognition 
of the young ladies’ laudable enterprise, and 


142 


LINKS OF GOLD 


colored photographs in plenty were scattered 
here and there, some in velvet frames, a few 
in hand-painted ones. Two choice little 
paintings in oil, daintily framed in gilt and 
offered at what would he considered less than 
cost, would net a pretty sum if purchased. 

A large tray in Madeline Hunters capa¬ 
cious trunk had come laden with sweet 
things, as Pauline had called them; and 
sweet they surely were in point of fragrance. 
Flat, quilted silk cushions, scented with 
sachet, for the lining of bureau drawers; 
picture flies, with painted corners and 
fringed edges ; pincushions of satin, lace, 
and ribbons; table scarfs, and comer mantel 
bows of wide ribbons, all sachet perfumed, 
made up Madeline’s lavish offerings. 

The flower table, with Pauline Van Werter 
and Madeline Hunter standing like flowers 
amid flowers, was a wonder of beauty, in¬ 
genuity, and sweetness. The paper flowers 
made by Isabel Trenton’s aunts were as 
perfect as human fingers could make them. 


THE SALE 


J 4 3 

A slender vase from Mr. Van Werter’s store 
of foreign goods held a bunch of sweet 
peas which faithfully reproduced nature’s 
matchless shape and coloring to the last 
degree of human skill. Another bunch of 
the same flowers, in a little old-fashioned 
pitcher of Japanese ware, looked as if just 
culled from a delightsome country garden. 
Dahlias, phlox, snowballs, and sunflowers 
were also skillfully set up on green covered 
wire stems for lamp screens, and at noon 
there came a variety of nature’s beauties 
from the Maitland conservatories. 

The candy table, under the care of Susie 
Follansbee and happy Hetty Shockmeyer, 
was a saccharine delight. The home-made 
candies came out beautifully. Many of 
these were disposed on curious Japanese 
trays from the importing house of Mr. Van 
Werter, and designed to be sold at catching 
prices. Addie Fredrick’s cornballs, heaped 
high in glittering pyramids, were sure to 
fall into the waiting paper bags. Hetty 


144 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Shockmeyer brought so generous an offer¬ 
ing that a portion was reserved for display 
the second evening. 

Also at noon arrived an unexpected con¬ 
tribution from little Miss Curlew. It was 
only some bright-colored papers cut in 
rounds or oval, the edges scalloped and 
pinked, the paper thick and glossy as if 
varnished. “ Just to be used as mats or 
little trays,” the note said that came with 
them. Some of the pink cornballs looked 
very pretty on the green mats, the white 
ones on the red mats, and so on. “ How 
kind ! how touching ! Why, how very kind 
of that dear little woman! ” said Madeline 
Hunter in her warm, hearty way when she 
saw the simple gifts. 

Dr. Compton, the beloved pastor, sent an 
ingenious picture, drawn with pen and ink, 
showing a few of the prominent scenes 
in the “ Pilgrim’s Progress.” “ The work 
of a few idle hours,” he wrote pleasantly. 
It was in a light frame of white silk with 


THE SALE 


!45 


violets embroidered here and there, the 
delicate work of Mrs. Compton. 

“ Well, I should say a man was refresh¬ 
ingly idle while tracing out work like that! ” 
said Isabel Trenton. “ I think papa would 
want that for his studio right away if he 
saw it,” she added. “ I hope he will have 
the chance of buying it before any one else 
does. What a handsome contribution ! ” 

Just as the girls were going home at noon 
to dine and then dress for the evening, there 
came a large box, brought in by an express- 
man. 

“ What can it be ? ” said Pauline, who in 
her surprise said nothing to the man who 
brought it; in fact, she had only seen him 
going out of the door, as the box had been 
carried into the back entrance. “ Knock it 
open, Daniel,” she said to the man, who 
fortunately was in the kitchen. “ I hope it 
is n’t crockery ware,” she added, thinking 
of the tiny Japanese cups and saucers on 
the fancy goods table. 

IO 


146 


LINKS OF GOLD 


No ; on opening, it proved to be fruit of 
the finest kind—oranges of phenomenal 
size, mandarins, apples that looked like 
wax, skinless figs, and beautiful pears, a 
rarity for the season. A card on the top of 
all bore the name, “ Miss Frobisher.” 

“Well, bless her heart and soul and all 
the rest of her ! ” cried Pauline with a merry 
little squeeze at the card as if it might have 
been Miss Frobisher’s hand. 

“ Well, to think ! ” said Rebecca. “ From 
that unapproachable ‘ duchess,’ Jack used to 
call her. I believe it pleased her that we 
called. Now if she ’ll only bring herself 
to-night, oh, won’t it be joyful! ” 

“Well, she had a first-class invitation,” 
said* Pauline ; “ but all I can say is, if she 
should come, it would be the first time I 
ever saw her in any kind of a building with 
other people, except sometimes at church 
and once in her own house.” 

“ Nothing from dear brother Pellington 
yet,” said Susie with a resigned air and a 


THE SALE 


!47 


forlorn pucker of her mouth and short little 
chin. “I’m afraid that Poppy and I did n’t 
make quite the fascinating pair that Poppy 
and Rebecca proved.” 

“ Oh, no knowing,” laughed Pauline. 
“ Colonel Pellington may come and buy us 
out for all we know.” 

The rooms on the first story of Mr. Nor¬ 
man Van Werter’s house were like a bower 
of beauty, light, and fragrance when evening 
came. “ Much like a beautiful picture,” 
some one said afterward. Stationed at the 
door was Daniel, grandly arrayed in a blue 
coat with brass buttons, which he proudly 
wore when acting as a kind of private police¬ 
man at Mr. Van Werter’s store during the 
holidays. A little table with a delicate 
satin cover had been placed near the door, 
and at this sat Jack Lorraine, rapidly slip¬ 
ping quarters into a beribboned Japanese 
basket. 

True to its promise, the college orchestra 
had arrived and was already sending sweet, 


148 


LINKS OF GOLD 


enlivening strains through the large rooms 
and spacious hall, all flooded with light. 
Coats and hats were piled high on the wide 
carved table in the hall, on the hat-stand 
and deer’s antlers mounted on the wall. 
People came and came, a continuous stream, 
until it seemed as though half the popula¬ 
tion of Verona Roads had flocked to the 
novel affair. Verily, Jack had done his 
part well. 

Miss Curlew, in an amazing little evening 
bonnet, evidently gotten up for the occasion, 
pressed to the flower table, where she stared 
in undisguised admiration at Pauline, bril¬ 
liant with excitement, and beautiful in a 
dress of light-blue silk very simply made, 
and at Madeline Hunter, who, all in white, 
looked perfectly dazzling to the good little 
milliner. 

“ You may not know it, my dear,” she 
said smilingly to Pauline, “ but people are 
having to wait their turn to see what you 
have for sale. We come in relays, actually 


THE SALE 


149 


in relays, my dear, so dense is the crowd. 
All, what beautiful sweet peas ! ” 

“ Perhaps you’d like those for your show- 
window/’ said Madeline, who made herself 
delightfully free and agreeable to all who 
stopped at the flower table ; “ they are very 
pretty and quite reasonable.” 

“ Ah, yes,” said Miss Curlew, “ it would 
be a great pleasure to buy anything of you, 
I am sure, my pretty dear; but I am afraid 
I must select something less perishable, for 
beautiful as the flowers are, they so soon fall 
away.” 

“ Oh, but these grew on wire stems,” said 
Madeline gayly, “ and a woman made them, 
and they’re warranted to last a whole 
season ; ” and the merry girl held vase and 
flowers aloft in her white fingers. “ The 
price marked includes vase and all,” she 
added. 

Miss Curlew exclaimed in astonishment. 
“ Really, quite a ruse,” she said in her little 
sentimental way. “ I never suspected their 


LINKS OF GOLD 


I S° 

genuineness. Please mark them sold at 
once. Nothing could be prettier for my 
show window.” 

The flower and candy tables were in the 
library, the fancy goods, useful articles, and 
toys, including dolls, in the parlor, which 
was wide and deep, considerably larger than 
the library. People had not come merely to 
look on, as the swift sales testified, and 
Arthur Fredricks had to be despatched in 
haste first from one table, then another, to 
get change from Jack Lorraine, who was fort¬ 
unate in having taken a hundred quarters 
alone. Verona Roads had come prepared to 
pay its fare. 

All at once a majestic figure strode into 
the hall—a man with a fine but forbidding 
face of a Roman cast. The tall form towered 
above nearly every one else present. Pau¬ 
line, behind the flowers, exchanged a per¬ 
fectly sober look with Susie Follansbee be¬ 
hind the candy, as Colonel Felix Pellington 
slowly picked his way to the flower table. 


THE SALE 


*5* 

“ Flowers, flowers, pretty flowers,” said 
Madeline Hunter in a soft, low tone, and be- 
witchingly holding an exquisite bunch of 
rosebuds and lilies of the valley before the 
sedate colonel. He looked steadily for a 
moment, as if unable to help looking at the 
radiant Madeline. Then regarding the 
flowers as if trying to determine whether 
quite so large a bunch was meant for a but¬ 
tonhole bouquet or to be carried in the hand, 
he asked soberly, “ What are these for? ” 

“ For only a dollar,” said the quick-witted 
Madeline, a flashing smile revealing her 
superb teeth. 

Colonel Pellington’s face relaxed involun¬ 
tarily as, struggling to get at an inner pocket 
midst the jam, he said, “ I ’ll give you a 
dollar, young lady, for your wit and your 
flowers, if I can reach my pocketbook.” 

He had succeeded in paying for his pur¬ 
chase and was about turning away when he 
collided slightly with a tall, grim, yet stately 
featured lady, and there, to Pauline’s great 


152 


LINKS OF GOLD 


satisfaction, was Miss Frobisher, evidently 
trying to reach the flower table. As the 
colonel brushed against her he bowed with 
with old-fashioned stateliness; then, per¬ 
haps glad to rid himself of an incumbrance, 
he said gallantly, “ Madame, permit me ; ” 
wherewith he presented the rosebuds and 
the lilies. 

“Oh, but you must have a buttonhole 
bouquet for yourself!” said the sprightly 
Madeline. “ Here is one; the prettiest I 
have, and only fifty cents.” 

“ Ah, you have persuaded me again ! ” 
said Colonel Pellington, solemnly receiving 
the little bunch of flowers and slipping them 
into a buttonhole. But the press prevented 
his immediately moving away, and his gaze 
wandered again to the flowers, which were 
arranged with great taste. 

“We want to sell this king bouquet,” 
said Madeline suavely, “ our largest and 
handsomest trophy of the flower table, to a 
good Samaritan who will carry them to some 


s 



MADELINE AND THE COLONEL 







THE SALE 


! 53 

sick person where it will do real good. You 
see the young ladies who got up this sale 
did it with a purpose,” she added, her burry 
Western turn of the “ r ” giving distinctness 
to what she said j u and if some one would 
buy it,—we only ask three dollars,—smell 
of it awhile, then carry it to some sick per¬ 
son, it would serve a double turn. We’d 
mark it ‘ sold ’ and keep it on the table till 
the close of the evening if any one wished 
us to.” 

“ Very well, you may mark it sold,” said 
Colonel Pellington, his severe face actually 
breaking into a reluctant smile. 




CHAPTER XI 

THE SALE CONTINUED 

“ Oh, are n’t you tired, Maidie ? ” 

It was Pauline Van Werter who addressed 
her cousin, at the same time sinking wearily 
into a deep-seated chair. 

“Tired? No, indeed!” cried Madeline. 
“I’m too nerved up and pleased to be tired. 
I never enjoyed anything so much in my 
life. When I go back to Chicago I think 
I ’ll have to persuade papa to let me tend in 
a flower store. Wasn’t it just lovely, and 
what a crowd ! Uncle Norman, did n’t you 
think it fine ? ” 

Mr. Van Werter, who was walking slowly 
up and down the nearly deserted room, re¬ 
garded his enthusiastic niece smilingly. 
i54 




THE SALE CONTINUED 


*55 

“ Yes, I rather enjoyed seeing so many 
people together,” he said. 

“ Oh, papa, yon were beautiful to every 
one to-night! ” Panline exclaimed, jumping 
up and linking her arm in her father’s as 
he walked. “ I was so glad to see you ap¬ 
pear to enjoy talking with Colonel Pelling- 
ton and Miss Frobisher, two of our specially 
invited guests.” 

“ And it was so nice,” said Madeline, 
“ to see the gratification in little Miss 
Curlew’s face when you 'went walking 
around the rooms with her after some of 
the people were gone. I just loved you for 
that! ” 

“ My dear,” said Mr. Van Werter, “ that 
was a very little thing to do, not worth men¬ 
tioning.” 

“ Well, it’s the little things I believe that 
make people happy in this world,” persisted 
Madeline. “ Oh, dear, I wish this sale was 
going to last a month! ” 

“ No, dear me! ” cried Pauline, “I’m 


156 LINKS OF GOLD 

afraid there would n’t be much of me left. 
You see I felt the anxiety of a hostess ; 
perhaps that’s what tired me so.” 

“ Well, come now, let’s say good night,” 
said Mr. Van Werter; “it is later than you 
think, and there is likely to be the same 
crowd to-morrow night, I imagine.” 

The next morning in trooped the merry 
friends to “ fix up ” for another night’s sale. 
“ Jack says there were at least two hundred 
people in these rooms last night,” said 
Rebecca, “ and the receipts will doubtless 
show it.” 

“ Now do n’t fail to bring those little boys 
to-night,” said Madeline to Susie Follansbee. 
“ I love children just as I do flowers; it 
always makes me feel happier to see them 
around.” 

“ Oh, I do n’t know,” said anxious Susie. 
“ If there should be such a crush as there 
was last night, what could we do with 
them ? ” 

“ Why, your father will take care of them 


THE SALE CONTINUED 


*57 


all right, Susie,” said Pauline reassuringly. 
“You need n’t feel a bit anxious here in this 
house.” 

“ Yes, papa ’ll mean to,” Susie rejoined, 
“ only he is so absent-minded, and they are 
so quick. Well—we’ll see.” 

It was plain at a glance that more than 
half of the articles were gone or marked 
“ sold,” some being left for looks’ sake until 
the end of the sale. Mr. Trenton had lost 
no time, as Isabel had predicted would most 
likely be the case, in buying the pen-and- 
ink sketch by Dr. Compton ; and Mr. Van 
Werter had purchased one of Mr. Trenton’s 
oil paintings, to be presented to Dr. Compton 
when the sale was over. Miss Frobisher 
had secured the other oil painting. 

Will Maitland, who presented himself 
early the first night and promised an equally 
prompt appearance on the second, bought 
two or three of Madeline’s fine pieces of 
fancy work, remarking that they were the very 
things he had long needed for his room at 


!5 8 


LINKS OF GOLD 


college ; and Jack Lorraine purchased Dora’s 
very handsomest doll for a little girl whose 
acquaintance he said he had scraped, that 
lived on a little by-street near the college, 
but was very, very poor. 

Colonel Pellington had turned Madeline’s 
charitably inclined remarks about the large 
bouquet very neatly upon herself. Before 
leaving the house he had again made his 
way to the flower table. “ I came,” he said 
with his usual stiff courtesy, “ to present 
you with the flowers I purchased, begging 
you will do me the favor to present them 
in turn to some sick or ailing person. I 
rarely make calls myself, and my circle of 
acquaintance includes at present no one 
whom I think would be particularly benefited 
by even so fine a collection of flowers.” 

“ Oh, but I thought good Samaritans were 
always men ! ” Madeline retorted. 

“You can transform yourself temporarily 
into a Dorcas, who I believe is always a 
woman,” replied the colonel. 


THE SALE CONTINUED 


*59 


“ I shall have to say they were really your 
gift,” said Madeline seriously. 

“ That will not be at all necessary,” said 
Colonel Pellington as he moved away. 

Thursday evening beheld the same bright 
rooms, tripping music, and happily gather¬ 
ing crowd at Mr. Van Werter’s house. The 
twins with twinkling eyes, clasped hands, and 
furtive looks crept close at their father’s heels. 

“ Oh, yes,” said Susie as she caught 
glimpses of the cunning little fellows moving 
quietly about; “ they ’re quiet enough now 
and very demure; but I hope,” she added, 
looking at Hetty Shockmeyer, to whom she 
was speaking, “ that papa will keep his eye 
on them.” 

Miss Curlew appeared a second time in 
the crowded rooms ; so did Miss Frobisher, 
who visited each table in turn, seeming to 
feel the fascination that youth and fresh 
spirits usually possess for an elderly and 
solitary person. Colonel Pellington did not 
appear a second time. 


i6o 


LINKS OF GOLD 


A little past the middle of the evening, 
when navigation had become difficult, Isabel 
Trenton espied Mr. Follansbee looking 
about the room with a peering, anxious ex¬ 
pression. 

“ I do believe he’s lost the twins,” Isabel 
said to Lilly Snow. “ All is, if he has, the 
Fates help him ! ” 

In the hall Dr. Compton was searching 
vainly for his overcoat. “ Let me help you,” 
said Mr. Van Werter. “ In such a crowd as 
this, it is easy for a coat to get displaced.” 
But the coat could not be found. 

“ I was looking for my hat,” said Dr. 
Lorraine, who “ between calls ” had stopped 
to look in upon the young people and their 
many friends. 

“In a hurry, doctor ? ” laughed Dr. 
Compton. “ Perhaps your hat has gone in 
search of my overcoat.” 

“ Oh, no; no special hurry,” said the 
doctor good-naturedly. “ I thought I might 
make one or two brief visits, then come back 


THE SALE CONTINUED l6l 

for my wife, who I see is quite fascinated 
with all this merry bargaining. Quite an 
idea of the young people’s, is n’t it ? ” 

Mr. Van Werter was beginning to feel 
concerned about the minister’s coat and the 
doctor’s hat, when stamping feet outside 
caused Daniel to quickly open the door. 
The peaked helmet of a policeman was 
visible as two astonishing objects were 
thrust into the hall. 

“ Here’s two young bloods,” said the 
policeman brusquely, “ as say they ’re 
visitin’ at Mr. Van Werter’s. All is, if they 
are, I recommend they be took care of.” 

Jack Lorraine’s boyish roar of laughter 
brought Mr. Van Werter nearer the door, fol¬ 
lowed by Dr. Compton. There, the picture 
of humiliation and confusion, stood the 
twins, each habited in an overcoat which 
trailed nearly a yard behind him, soiled and 
dusty from contact with the sidewalk. On 
Benny’s small head was a derby hat which 
reached to his neck behind. Billy’s head 

XI 


i 62 


LINKS OF GOLD 


was adorned with a tall, stiff beaver which 
covered it entirely, only his face from the 
eyes down being visible. Roars and peals 
of laughter caused a general turning toward 
the hall, all who could hastening to get a 
look at the ridiculous pair. 

“ Oh, what naughty little sons ! ” said Mr. 
Follansbee mildly, both relief and regret in 
his face and voice. 

“ The coats were an easy matter; but how 
in the world did they manage in this crowd 
to get hold of these hats, and then slip 
through the dining-room as they must have 
done ? ” said Arthur Fredricks, who was anx¬ 
ious Susie should not know at what people 
were laughing. 

“ Oh, the crowd helped them,” said Mr. 
Van Werter, who was vigorously brushing 
Dr. Compton’s overcoat. 

“ Yes, but these hats? ” persisted Arthur, 
looking up at the high pegs. 

u We tooked a cane an’ popped ’em down,” 
explained Benny. 


THE SALE CONTINUED 163 

“ Took ever ’n’ ever so long,” piped Billy; 
“ had to wait so long for folkses’ backs to 
turn round.” 

Then it turned out that two or three per¬ 
sons had seen the little fellows at the rear of 
the hall seemingly amusing themselves in 
a quiet way, but had thought nothing more 
of it. 

“Well, you ’re a precious pair, the two of 
you ! ” said Jack Lorraine, his rich voice 
rounding out with the merriment the esca¬ 
pade of the twins afforded him. 

Poor Mr. ‘Follansbee insisted on taking 
them right home, but Arthur Fredricks 
urged his allowing them to remain, promis¬ 
ing to himself take “ proper good care ” of 
them. “ They won’t get away from me,” 
he added. And fearing that, as Arthur 
suggested, if Susie found the twins had de¬ 
parted in disgrace, it might entirely spoil 
the evening for her, Mr. Follansbee yielded. 

By nine o’clock the tables were actually 
cleared, everything having been sold. Then 


LINKS OF GOLD 


164 

the young ladies circulated through the 
ranks of purchasers, each constituting her¬ 
self, as Pauline had advised, a hostess among 
her guests. For nearly another hour there 
was a pleasaut chatting of many voices, 
after which a few still lingered. 

“ Where are those twins?” suddenly 
asked Susie Follansbee. “ Oh, I suppose 
papa has taken them home long ago,” she 
added. 

Coffee, sandwiches, and nut cakes were to 
be served in the dining-room to the members 
of the obliging orchestra, Will Maitland, 
and a few others that Pauline had asked to 
remain. 

“ Oh, come, girls,” said Pauline, “ here it 
is nearly ten o’clock and that train leaves at 
quarter past; we must go out at once.” 

As Pauline entered the dining-room, fol¬ 
lowed by quite a little train, she burst into a 
hearty laugh, echoed almost immediately by 
others. There sat Jack Lorraine and Arthur 
Fredericks, each with one of Susie Follans- 



THE SALE CONTINUED 165 

bee’s long gingham aprons tied around his 
waist, and one of Pauline Van Werter’s 
pretty dusting caps on his head, with Miss 
Curlew’s tasteful bows galore. And held in 
the lap of each was a twin, contentedly 
sucking an enormous orange. 

“ O Jack Lorraine and Arthur Fredricks, 
you sinners ! ” cried Susie. u Don’t you 
know better than to give those children 
oranges at this time of night?” 

But Benny placidly relinquished his, say¬ 
ing the juice was all pinched out, and Billy 
held his out toward Susie, saying with an 
angelic smile, “ Here, Susie, you can have 
the rest. I can ’t get any more juice out; 
there ain’t any left.” 

The little treat had to be hastened more 
than Pauline liked, but the college lads 
assured her they could despatch a good deal 
in a modicum of time, and so it appeared, 
for the neat piles of sandwiches and abun¬ 
dant supply of nut cakes disappeared with 
pleasing alacrity, while Pauline and Made- 


LINKS OF GOLD 


166 

line had all they could do to pour the coffee 
with sufficient rapidity. 

At the end of another half-hour the friends 
had all gone, Jack and Arthur making deft 
bundles of their caps and aprons, which 
each asserted had been purchased for their 
sisters, hoping they would convey a hint 
of how useful they could be made in the 
kitchen in the interests of their dear brothers. 

Then the house grew quiet and the sale 
which had been such a great success was 
ended. 

When the girls met at Pauline’s the next 
afternoon, the carpet coverings had been 
removed, the rooms swept, the furniture re¬ 
placed, and everything was in the usual 
order. 

“We expected to do something toward 
restoring this condition of things, Poppy,” 
said Rebecca; and the others spoke of 
having had the same expectation. 

“ No need,” said Pauline ; “ I was quite 
pleased to find that Daniel and Kate had 


THE SALE CONTINUED 


167 


taken out tke tables and got tbe rooms 
partly in order before Maidie and I made our 
appearance tbis morning.” 

Then they set to work to find out just 
what had been realized. Pauline went to 
the safe and brought a box heavy with 
money. After going over it three times it 
was found they had just three hundred and 
five dollars, which was handed over to 
Rebecca as treasurer. 

“ One hundred of this, Jack says, must 
have been taken at the door,” said Rebecca, 
“ for he feels sure that two hundred people 
were here each night. Only think how 
people flocked to our sale! ” 

“ Perhaps we ought to have hired a hall,” 
said Isabel Trenton. 

“ No,” said Pauline, “ we should n’t have 
done nearly as well. One thing that gave 
glamour to onr little undertaking and made 
it so pleasant was having it held in a private 
house. Should we ever repeat it, we must 
repeat that part of it too.” 


LINKS OF GOLD 


168 

“ I think it added a great deal of interest 
that Poppy was at the head of it all,” said 
Susie Follansbee; “ I know it did.” 

“ Oh, well,” said Pauline, “ I’m just 
delighted with our success, and I shall 
enjoy seeing the good we can do with our 
little fund. Papa owned that he was glad to 
see people looking so happy in his house. 
I took occasion to say I thought the twenty- 
five cents for admission was all right, and he 
said, ‘ Oh, well, people know I had nothing 
to do with that.’ Dear, proper, proud old 
papa! ” 

“ We shall have money to do good with all 
through next winter, I think,” said Rebecca. 
“Now what shall we do first—go and see 
Mrs. Hoostan?” 

It was agreed not to be in a hurry to dis¬ 
tribute what they all had worked hard for. 
But Pauline and Susie were to call the next 
day, which would be Saturday, at Mrs. 
Hoostan’s and tell her that Melly should go 
to the hospital and try what could be done 


THE SALE CONTINUED 


169 

for her there. But it was further resolved 
that on Monday Pauline, Madeline Hunter, 
and Susie Follansbee should visit the hos¬ 
pital in the city, state the case, and make 
as advantageous terms as possible. Then 
Melly was to be taken there immediately. 

Madeline screamed a little at the idea of 
going to such a place as a hospital, especially 
as Pauline said, “ Maidie, you shall go ! ” 
But when Pauline said indulgently, “ No, 
you need n’t go one step if you do n’t want 
to,” the rollicking girl all at once straight¬ 
ened herself with a womanly air and said she 
had secretly hoped they would ask her to go 
with them ever since they began talking, 
and she would n’t miss it for the world. 

“ Now, Isabel,” said Pauline, as the time 
came for the friends to take their leave, 
“ Maidie wants to walk along with you on 
the way home and have you direct her to 
William Wansted’s little house. She wishes 
to make a call, all by herself, and present 
poor Mr. Wans ted with an elegant bouquet 


170 


LINKS OF GOLD 


which Colonel Pellington bought and then 
left for her—because of her own recommen¬ 
dation, mind you—to give it to some sick or 
ailing person.” 

The beautiful bouquet was in the library 
still fresh and fair. “ I think it will do the 
Wansteds all good to see such a great, 
lovely, cheery collection of flowers as that,” 
said Addie Fredricks. 

“ I shall tell him they are a present from 
Colonel Pellington, who paid for them,” said 
Madeline. 

Which she did, carrying sunshine, per¬ 
fume, and delight into the humble abode. 
She was to hear from her call at a future 
time. 


CHAPTER XII 


AT THE HOSPITAL 

The truth was, neither of the trio had 
ever been inside of hospital walls before, and 
Susie Follansbee was the calmest of the 
three girls as they ascended the broad stone 
steps of the building. 

“ I’m trembling like a leaf,” said Pauline a 
as she stood before the ponderous door. 

“ I’m making believe tremble, too,” said 
Madeline ; but her brightly glancing eyes 
were not suggestive of any great amount of 
trepidation. 

“ Why, we he not going where there’s 
any sickness,” said Susie. “ All we want 
is to make arrangements for poor Melly; so 
come on, the sooner we are in the better ; ” 

saying which she led the way into the hall. 

171 


172 


LINKS OF GOLD 


An attendant took the message after 
showing them into the reception room, and 
in a few moments a gentleman appeared, 
glanced rapidly at the girls and waited to 
learn their errand. 

It soon appeared that Melly could be 
regarded partly as a charity patient. The 
terms made admitted of her remaining at 
the hospital for twelve weeks, at the end 
of which time it could be decided as to the 
probability of ultimate recovery. At Susie’s 
inquiry if Melly could be visited and how 
she would be situated, the doctor asked if 
they would not like to see the ward where 
Melly would have a cot. 

The girls exchanged glances. “ Yes, I 
should like to,” said Madeline Hunter, “ if 
my friends would.” And whatever the 
others might have thought, it was too late 
to demur, for, with the promptness of a 
trained official, the doctor was already lead¬ 
ing the way through the hall. 

It was a new lesson for the gay, easily 


A T THE HOSPITAL 


*7 3 


moved Madeline Hunter, fashionable, world- 
loving Pauline Van Werter, and tender, 
motherly Susie Follansbee. 

The spacious ward, in reality a hall of 
itself, was uncarpeted except for strips of 
matting along the centre between the rows 
of cots. Everything was exquisitely neat, 
each bed having a clean spread over it, and 
beside it a small stand and a chair. Before 
several was a screen completely hiding the 
patient. On some of the stands were flowers 
in tumblers. 

The girls paused first at a cot near the 
entrance, whereon, bolstered high on pillows, 
was a little girl of four or five years, holding 
a rag doll close to her heart. The little 
creature was nearly as white as the sheet 
about her face and hands, and so thin as to 
suggest merely a shadowy presence. But 
at Madeline Hunter’s surprised stare the 
tiny face smiled, smiled all over—the blue 
eyes, colorless cheeks, and white little 
mouth. 


*74 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ Why, you little darling! ” cried im¬ 
pulsive, affectionate Madeline. “ Why, you 
little bit of a white flower! what brought 
you here ? Little sweet, can you tell me ? ” 

The doctor, who at first made a movement 
as if to check the too ardent girl, thought 
better of it and let Madeline caress on. One 
little hand was already in hers, while Made¬ 
line with the other perfectly gloved hand 
was smoothing softly the tiny face. 

“ I got sick,” said the little girl, “ and 
papa bringed me here.” 

“ Where’s mamma ? ” asked Madeline. 

“ Mamma up in heaven,” said the mite. 
“ I ’ll get all well pritty soon ; nursey says 
so. Won’t you stay all day?” And she 
looked with childish delight at the sweet, 
brilliant face bending over her. 

“ Could n’t, little love,” said Madeline ; 
“ but I ’ll come and see you again, and I ’ll 
bring some pretty flowers and perhaps some 
nice grapes. Now remember, I promise 
you ; ” and she turned abruptly away. 


AT THE HOSPITAL 


i 7 S 


“ There ! I should cry my heart out if I 
stayed beside her a moment longer,” she 
said. “ I reckon hospital scenes are a little 
too much for me.” But the girls who had 
looked sympathetically on were following 
the doctor through the ward. Madeline 
hurried forward for a word with him. 

“ What is the matter with that little 
girl ? ” she asked. 

“ Consumption,” he said. 

“ And won’t she get well ? ” 

“ No, there’s not enough of little Teena 
for that. Her mother was a frail child of 
seventeen when she was born. Her father, 
some years older, is none too steady. The 
child will slip away soon, and it will be better 
she should.” 

“ Oh, how can you be so cool about it! ” 
said Madeline. 

The gentleman beside her looked without 
surprise at the young, quivering face. “ I 
see it every day, you must remember,” he 
said not ungently. 


176 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Just then they paused beside a screen 
which the doctor drew partly aside. A girl 
of their own age looked placidly at the vis¬ 
itors. Beside the cot was the usual stand 
with a tumbler filled with beautiful hot¬ 
house flowers. A little dish of bonbons was 
also beside it. 

“ How do you find yourself to-day, Callie ? ” 
asked the doctor in a low, pleasant voice. 

The girl laid down a light book she had 
been reading. “ A little stronger than I was 
yesterday, thank you,” she replied. “ Are 
you Christian Endeavorers, or Epworth 
League, or simply untitled Christians ? ” 
she asked so naturally and serenely that it 
seemed impossible not to return her frank¬ 
ness in an equally natural manner. 

“ Oh, dear, no ! I hn just a sinner,” said 
Madeline, dropping her voice to an unusual 
key for her, but going close to the young 
invalid. “ Miss Follansbee there is a Chris¬ 
tian,” she went on, “ but I can’t say I am ; 
perhaps more’s the pity.” 


AT THE HOSPITAL 


1 77 


“ And you ? ” softly asked tlie brown-eyed, 
all too fragile girl, looking at Pauline, who 
flushed uncomfortably at the gentle question. 

“ Poppy’s almost a Christian, I’m afraid,” 
put in Madeline, unconscious of the impres¬ 
sion conveyed in her always honest speech. 

“ Oh, my dear, pretty friend ! ” said the 
sick girl deprecatingly, “ I’m where none 
but straightforward, candid words can pass 
my lips, and the time is short. If only one of 
you is a Christian, I must beg that you let it 
be your very next concern to become such, 
you who are not now. Why, being a Christian 
is the sweetest thing in the world ! What 
a lovely Christian you would make ! ” she 
added, as if unable to resist the spell of 
Madeline’s brilliant complexion, faultless 
features, and the charm of manner which 
drew people irresistibly to notice her. 

The doctor had strolled away, as if aware 
that at this cot there might be a lesson im¬ 
pressed that was well worth the learning, 
and not to be hurried over. 


178 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ Oil, but things are so hard, so unjust! ” 
said Madeline, her voice full of tears. 
“ Why, up there near the entrance is a little 
tender thing, the child of a child, that is dy¬ 
ing ; not more than four or five years old, 
and actually dying! ” 

Madeline repeated the sorrowful word with 
a lingering utterance as if to impress its en¬ 
tire sadness on herself and the others as well. 
“ Now how can a kind God let a little thing 
like that suffer and die in a hospital ? And 
then look at you, that ought to be up and 
about, enjoying this beautiful world instead 
of lying there, sick and helpless. Oh, I 
think it’s cruel, cruel! ” And Madeline 
brought her hands together with a vigorous 
snap in emphasis of her hasty opinion. 

The fading girl beside her smiled into 
Madeline’s distressed face. Without a ves¬ 
tige of reproof in her soft voice she replied, 
“ You see, you don’t know God.” 

“ No, I do n’t! ” responded Madeline in a 
way that made Pauline and Susie smile in 


A T THE HOSPITAL 


179 


spite of themselves. “ I can’t help it if it’s 
wicked to say so,” she added after a moment. 
“ But I ’m afraid of him. Now, are n’t you, 
Pauline ? ” she asked appealingly. 

“ N-o, not exactly,” said Pauline. “ I Ve 
never thought very much of God or of Christ 
until of late,” she went on, looking at the 
invalid; “ but for a few weeks I have been 
attending a Young People’s prayer-meeting, 
and I have been surprised to find how like a 
friend my companions regard the Saviour, 
now that they have come to—to—really get 
acquainted, as you might say.” 

“ That’s just it,” said the sick girl; “ only 
acquaint yourself with the dear Father in 
heaven and his Son, the blessed Saviour, and 
no lovelier friends could be known. And 
then, this dear girl is so entirely mistaken 
as to what it is for a Christian or for a little 
child to die.” 

“ Are you going to die ? ” asked Madeline 
simply. 

“ I’m hoping very soon to truly live,” 


i8o 


LINKS OF GOLD 


was the almost joyful reply. “ A year ago,” 
—and the voice was so low the girls drew a 
little closer to hear,—“ I could scarcely keep 
my dancing feet quiet a moment. I was poor 
and obliged to take care of myself. I worked 
in a millinery establishment where they 
were kind to me, and I enjoyed holidays and 
evenings to the very utmost. My life was. 
full of gayety and thoughtless pleasure. 
One night a Christian girl in the store in¬ 
vited me to go to a prayer-meeting with her. 
I did n’t want to consent, but she was a kind 
girl who had done me many favors, so I went 
with her and was really so surprised that I 
determined not to go again, for I did not 
want to be a Christian. But soon afterward 
I took a terrible cold which never left me. 
For six months I defied a tender voice that 
urged my giving up the whirl I was con¬ 
stantly in ; then I had to lie down and think. 
My Christian acquaintances flocked to see 
me, aided me in many ways, and finally I 
was brought to the Saviour. 


A T THE HOSPITAL 


181 

“ Now I do n’t feel that God is cruel. Oh, 
no ! He is exceeding kind. For had I gone 
on in health and strength I might never 
have loved him nor accepted the salvation of 
Christ. Do n’t wait until sickness, or perhaps 
misfortune, forces you to the Saviour’s side. 
Serve him now in your beautiful youth and 
health when service can mean so much. I 
have but one regret as I lie here; that is, 
that I would not heed my Saviour’s call 
while I could have done so much for him.” 

“ Well, I’m sure,” said Susie, speaking 
in the kindest of tones, “ you are still able 
to do much for the Master. Speaking so 
freely is an acceptable service, I know, and 
then patience and resignation preach very 
convincing sermons, especially from young 
people. We look for resignation from older 
people, but with the young it goes for much 
more. So I think you are still permitted to 
do a great deal of good.” 

“ Ah, yes ! but not what I might have 
done once.” 


182 


LINKS OF GOLD 


The last reply was merely whispered, and 
the girls seeing her exhaustion turned pity¬ 
ingly away. Other cots were visited where 
the occupants were convalescing, and some 
nearly recovered. <( After all, what a blessed 
institution a hospital is ! ” said Susie, when 
they had again reached the street. 

“ I can’t help thinking what a friend 
Christ is,” said Pauline with a quick flush. 

“ O Poppy, dear,” said Susie lovingly, 
“ I’d rather hear you say that than any¬ 
thing else in this world ! I only hope we 
shall have you with us, heart and soul, be¬ 
fore long. All of us four would be so glad 
to have you join us.” 

“ Oh, no,” said Madeline, shaking her 
head. “ You needn’t say that and go leav¬ 
ing me out. I want to belong, too.” 

“ We should be only too glad,” said Susie 
cheerily, “ to welcome you also to our Chris¬ 
tian sisterhood.” 

“ No, no, I did n’t mean just that either,” 
said Madeline. “ I can’t say I’m ready to 


A T THE HOSPITAL 


i8 3 

give up some things that I know are down¬ 
right worldly, and that church members 
have no business to indulge in. If ever I 
am a Christian,” she added vigorously, “ I 
mean to be an up and down one, and no 
pretending.” 

“ Yes, I ’ll warrant you would be, Maidie,” 
said Pauline laughingly. 

“ I promised to see that little kitty by the 
door soon again,” said Madeline, “lying 
there dying with her doll in her arms, and I 
mean to, certainly as soon as a week from to¬ 
day. I suppose you and Susie can come too, 
can’t you, Poppy? ” 

“ I do n’t think I had better go quite so 
soon again,” said Susie, “ because you know 
I shall want to go once in a while after 
Melly Hoostan is there. She will be a sort 
of ward for us all to think of, and we must 
try to ‘ tend up faithful,’ as I heard Daniel 
say the other night.” 

They had found that Melly Hoostan could 
probably be admitted to the hospital on 


184 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Tuesday of the week following, and the 
girls stood ready to pay for her removal. 
The next Monday Pauline and Madeline 
went again to the city, each carrying an 
offering of flowers and fruit, for Pauline 
wished to carry something to Callie, and 
Madeline could not have forgotten her prom¬ 
ise of a week ago. 

The little Teena by the door was having 
a “ bad day,” but the blue eyes smiled as 
Madeline bent over her, holding the flowers 
so that she could inhale their sweetness. 
But Madeline realized something of the 
child’s weakness when even the fragrance 
of the delicate blooms seemed nearly to 
choke her. 

“ She can have them at a little distance,” 
said the pleasant-faced nurse who was hover¬ 
ing near; “ but it would take only a little 
to stop her breath entirely.” 

“ Does she know she can’t get well ? ” 
asked Pauline aside. 

“ Oh, no,” said the nurse cheerfully; 


A T THE HOSPITAL 


T ^S 

“ the little creature will open her blue eyes 
and find her mother some day ; that’s all 
there will be to it. She has n’t suffered 
much, and she won’t suffer ; it will all be 
very easy for her.” 

“Don’t you think it’s awfully sad?” 
asked Madeline. 

“ Not one bit, my dear. It’s a thousand 
times sadder to see some children get well. 
That soft little baby will never know a 
temptation nor a fear nor a real pain. The 
sad thing is to see the poor, broken-down 
sinful men and women that come here. I 
can tell you we see some tough sights.” 

“ Oh, why does n’t Jesus Christ save 
everybody ? ” said Pauline, as if the cry was 
wrung from her young heart. 

“ Why does n’t everybody that can, help 
people to know of Jesus Christ ? ” said the 
nurse, as if the query half discouraged her. 
Then she added tersely : “ No matter how 
many dark lives go out, there are always 
plenty left to redeem.” 


i86 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ Maidie, I ’ll tell you what it is,” said 
Pauline as they turned slowly away, walk¬ 
ing toward Callie’s cot, “ I feel as though I 
had been forging links for a chain I cannot 
break. I did n’t know what I was doing 
either. First, that sermon Dr. Compton 
preached, and Jack and Arthur’s danger on 
the ice, set me thinking; and I proposed the 
sale with a distant idea of doing good in 
a far-off region of Africa. The girls took 
hold like heroes, but I can see now, with 
great tact and kindness, led me to alter my 
original plan for one far better. Well, it’s 
been just like the house that Jack built. 
The preparation for the sale drew me some¬ 
how into the meetings ; the sale has brought 
me into contact with Melly Hoostan and her 
mother; they have brought me to the hos¬ 
pital ; the hospital has made me acquainted 
with Callie, and the solemn words that 
nurse has just spoken, and—Maidie, I be¬ 
lieve I ’ll have to be a Christian before I 
get much farther! Now, here is Callie’s 


AT THE HOSPITAL 187 

cot,” she concluded as they reached the 
wide screen that both remembered. 

Downstairs they had asked for the little 
Teena and had been told they could go right 
up, as the nurse was with her at the time. 
Then, so earnest was Pauline with what she 
had to say, that they strolled by themselves 
to the place where Callie lay. 

“ I suppose we can peep and see if she is 
asleep,” said Pauline, looking around ; and 
seeing only another nurse sonne way off, 
Madeline said, “ Oh, yes,” and darted 
around to the side of the cot. It was 
empty. 

“ Poppy ! ” she gasped, starting back ; 
“ Poppy, she’s gone ! What do yon sup¬ 
pose it means ? ” 

Pauline looked first at the cot, then at 
Madeline. A quite elderly nurse was ap¬ 
proaching. “ Where is Callie ? ” Made¬ 
line asked breathlessly. 

“ She is dead,” said the nurse softly but 
with no painful accent whatever. 


i88 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ Why, but we saw her only just a week 
ago to-day,” panted Madeline. 

“ Yes, dear ; but the sick are dying every 
day. Callie breathed her last at daybreak 
last Wednesday morning, and it was just 
like a child’s falling asleep.” 


CHAPTER XIII 


“ IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT ” 

Pauline and Madeline left the hospital 
with sober faces. 

“ It scares me, doesn’t it you, Poppy? ” 
asked Madeline. “ Only think how sudden! 
We were talking with Callie one short week 
ago ; now it’s all over ! ” 

“ No, it does n’t exactly scare me,” said 
Pauline. u I can ’t say, either, that it is so 
very sudden, for when you think of it, Callie 
had been sick a long time. Did you notice 
what the nurse said just before we left the 
ward ? ” 

“ No, I was saying a few words to little 
Teena.” 

u She said that that would be Melly’s cot 

where Callie had been.” 

189 


LINKS OF GOLD 


190 

“ How dreadful! said Madeline. “ And 
yet,” she added in the next breath,“ I don’t 
know as I should be nervous on that account 
if I had to lie there myself. I’m not a 
bit cowardly in that way, I do n’t believe.” 

“ I do n’t think these things seem nearly 
as dreadful to me as they would have even a 
month ago, Maidie. Somehow, I ’m chang¬ 
ing. I can’t tell how, but it seems as though 
something beyond myself was drawing me 
into different ways of thinking and of look¬ 
ing at things.” 

“ You do n’t think you ’re a Christian, do 
you, Poppy?” 

“ Oh, no, I do n’t believe I’m anywhere 
near one. But one evening Miss Curlew, 
that little milliner, you remember, said some¬ 
thing to me about my mother. Of course, 
I do n’t remember mamma very distinctly, 
I was so young when she died, but Miss 
Curlew told how she cried one night at a 
prayer-meeting when the minister was pray¬ 
ing for those who were ‘ out of Christ,’ and 


IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT” 


191 

I almost know she was crying about papa, 
because he never has been a church mem¬ 
ber.” 

“ My papa’s a church member,” said 
Madeline, “ but I Ve always been thankful 
he never talked to me about church affairs. 
I always think young folks are about done 
with the earth and are all ready for transla¬ 
tion when they get religious, and I’m not 
ready to be translated yet. Just look at 
Callie! Honestly, I’d rather be gay and 
live the longer.” 

“ Just the way I talked a little while ago, 
Maidie. But you must remember that 
Callie confessed she cared nothing for these 
things for months after she was sick and in 
danger. And then, just look at our young 
people! Where could you find a merrier, 
more laughing girl than Isabel Trenton? 
And in fact all of them. See how her relig¬ 
ion helps cheery little Susie with her great 
cares ! The first time I went to a Young 
People’s prayer-meeting Isabel led, and I 


192 


LINKS OF GOLD 


thought my heart would burst. I do n’t see 
what made me feel so.” 

“ Well, I cried slyly, and could n’t help 
it, Poppy, when I heard Isabel repeat that 
poetry. It affected me when that little 
black-eyed thing got up and began reading 
the Bible, but I managed to sit up and be¬ 
have myself until Isabel began, 1 How do I 
love Thee ? ’ See how I remember it! I 
wonder if I’m very deep ? ” Madeline went 
on. “ Sometimes I think I flush out so and 
am so quick to show my feelings I do n’t go 
down quite as far as I might.” 

Pauline laughed outright. “ Maidie, you 
are the funniest girl I ever saw,” she said. 
“ Yes, I ’ll answer for your depth. I should 
n’t want to see you make a wrong turn, 
because, for all you seem so loving and 
pliable, I think once your mind was made 
up, you’d stick ! ” 

“ Papa says I ’ve got an awful will,” said 
Madeline thoughtfully; “ but I’ve had to 
reach conclusions for myself ever since I 


IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT ’ 


*93 

was little. But I think you ’re right, for 
when I once make up my mind to any¬ 
thing I do n’t believe I turn quite with the 
weathercock. Poor papa found that out, I 
reckon, when he was advising me to make 
sure that I knew what I was about when I 
kept refusing Eugene McPride. They say 
he is worth half a million in his own right 
and will have as much more one of these 
days. But I knew what my objections 
were, and he was not at all the man for me.” 

“ The half a million did n’t tempt you 
then, Maidie ? ” 

“ Not for a moment. If he had been 
possessed of different morals, I should have 
felt there might be some hope for him, but 
as it was, I would n’t consider him, nor his 
fine education, nor his money for an in¬ 
stant.” 

“ There, you see, Maidie, for all you ’re 
not ready to be a Christian, you can ’t help 
feeling that stamina of that kind is a sort of 
anchor or safeguard.” 

*3 


194 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ Yes, and do n’t deny it,” said Madeline 
stoutly. 

It had touched Pauline’s heart and moist¬ 
ened her eyes to hear poor Mrs. Hoostan’s 
expressions of gratitude on first hearing what 
the young ladies were going to do for her un¬ 
fortunate Melly. Now, when Pauline called 
in the afternoon with Madeline and Susie to 
say definitely that they would be ready to 
receive Melly at the hospital the next day, 
she burst forth into fresh thanks, mingled 
with motherly solicitude at the near parting. 

“ ’T is the glide Lord will hae a care o’ 
my lammie,” she said, “ an’ I ’ll nae greet 
for her but luke aloft an’ tak’ courage. Th’ 
lass will soon gang hame again, after th’ 
gude physicians hae helpet her. Belike 
she ’ll coom back to th’ auld hoose-place her 
ain bonny sel’ again.” 

“ Shall I stop for you on the way to meet¬ 
ing?” asked Susie as they were about to 
separate after the call. u I may not see you 
to-morrow to know,” 


IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT ’ 


*95 


“ What do you say, Maidie? ” asked Pau¬ 
line. 

“ Oh, yes, I ’ll go while I’m here,” said 
Madeline. “1 know Poppy likes to, and I 
really quite enjoy the meetings myself.” 

The subject the next night was resigna¬ 
tion to the will of God, and although she had 
not mentioned it to Pauline or Madeline, 
it was Susie Follansbee’s time to lead the 
service. The meeting was not a sad one, yet 
Susie was very thoughtful on the way home. 
Arthur Fredricks had been present, as he 
often was, and after he and Addie had left 
Susie at her gate he asked Addie if she did 
not think Susie had seemed a little down¬ 
hearted. 

“ No,” Addie replied, “ Susie is often quiet 
and thoughtful. But then it may be she 
was a little anxious, for she mentioned that 
Benny did not seem at all well this evening, 
and she should hardly have felt like leav¬ 
ing him unless her father had been going to 
remain at home,” 


196 


LINKS OF GOLD 


a Always those twins! ” said Arthur. 
“ What a little mother Susie is to them ! 
I hope the little scamps will grow up to ap¬ 
preciate her.” 

“ Why, Susie loves them with all her 
heart,” said Addie. “ She trembles if the 
least thing ails them.” 

The next morning as Addie was on her 
way to inquire for Benny she met Dr. Lor¬ 
raine, who stopped his horse to speak to her. 
“ You had better not go to Mr. Follansbee’s,” 
he said. “ One of the little fellows is sick, 
and it promises to be a pretty hard case of 
scarlet fever.” 

Addie turned back reluctantly. She 
would have gone on had she followed her 
own inclinations, but in the face of the 
doctor’s warning she did not think it right. 

For several days whenever any of the 
friends met, the first question was as to 
Benny’s condition, which Rebecca could 
generally answer accurately. But reports 
grew steadily discouraging. Susie’s aunt, 


“ IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT" 


1 97 

who used to live with her before she left 
school, came to assist in the care of the sick 
child, and Blinda, who mourned and la¬ 
mented in no stinted measure over Benny’s 
condition, declaring to all she saw that he 
was “ the best little feller,” took charge of 
Billy, “ nivir lettin’ me eyes off ’n him,” she 
averred, but keeping him continually away 
from the room where poor unconscious little 
Benny was lying quietly enough at last. 

It was Madeline Hunter, gay, heedless, 
loving Madeline, who was to carry comfort 
to poor troubled Susie, making for her a 
little green oasis in very truth midst her 
desert of anxiety and unrest. 

Pauline had openly avowed her intention 
of going to see Susie, if only for a moment, 
but her father had decidedly protested, and 
she was far too filial a daughter to disobey. 
But Madeline was not present when her 
uncle had so resolutely opposed Pauline’s 
putting herself for a moment in the way 
of possible harm. She felt, however, that 


I9S 


LINKS OF GOLD 


should she say anything, Pauline might 
object to her going. But Benny had been 
sick ten days, and during the wearisome, 
anxious days and nights not one of Susie’s 
young friends had ventured near her. The 
scourge so dreaded by all parents, whether 
contagious or not, was regarded as being so, 
and not one of the girls could be exposed to 
the risk of visiting her now. 

“ It is so piteously hard,” Madeline mur¬ 
mured to herself, “ to think of that dear, 
good little Susie shut away in that dark, 
silent house with never a young face to 
cheer her for a moment. I know the way 
perfectly. I ’ll creep around to the rear 
door and ask to see her just for the littlest mo¬ 
ment and then I ’ll walk an hour so’s to be 
sure and not bring anything home to Poppy. 
I ’ve had the fever and so has she, and see 
how Dr. Lorraine has to go right into such 
rooms and then go where his children are. 
The good Lord knows I would n’t do any¬ 
thing I thought was harmful or wrong, but 


IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT' 


1 99 


I must just show how I feel. I’d want 
some one to, if I was Susie.” 

Madeline made an excuse, which was the 
truth, that she wanted to do an errand at 
Miss Curlew’s, and as Pauline was going on 
a little business errand, they started off in 
different directions. No thought of personal 
danger occurred to Madeline as she turned 
toward Susie’s house, and she acted out her 
own kindly, generous self when Susie, pale 
from watching and anxiety, came creeping 
into the sitting-room. 

“ You little dear ! You poor, dear little 
soul! ” crooned Madeline, hugging and 
kissing her with unaffected warmth. “ I 
thought it was a shame for you never to see 
a young face all this dreary while. I 
sha’ n’t tell Poppy I’ve been here, because I 
ran away. The girls would probably all 
have been here, only you know parents are so 
afraid of one’s catching the fever, and I only 
just came to let you know we are all as sorry 
for you as we can be. Now it will be some- 


200 


LINKS OF GOLD 


thing to know we’re all thinking of you 
every day, won’t it ? You did know that 
before, but it will be something cheery to 
have been told of it, won’t it, dear? ” 

Susie burst into violent weeping. Made¬ 
line’s bright presence, the affectionate tones, 
and soothing, caressing words were too much 
for her overcharged heart, and for a few 
moments she sobbed audibly, unable to 
check herself or to speak a word. 

“ Oh, have I made a mistake ? ” said Made¬ 
line. “ Did I do wrong to come ? I only 
meant to help you, dear. I had to come and 
say how sorry we all are, but I suppose Dr. 
Lorraine has done that, and perhaps it was 
enough.” 

“Oh, no, no!” said Susie between her 
choking sobs. “ It will do me a world of 
good to have seen you. And I do n’t believe 
any harm can can come of your sisterly 
kindness. I ’ll never forget it, never, no 
matter what happens. But were n’t you in 
the least afraid on your own account ? ” 


IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT ’ 


201 


“Not a bit. I ’m never so much, afraid 
for myself, I think, where any danger is con¬ 
cerned, as I am for others.” 

“ But suppose you should get sick? ” per¬ 
sisted Susie, who was weak and nervous. 
“ What should you do ? ” 

“ I sha’ n’t,” said Madeline ; “ but if I 
should, papa would come right on, take 
me to the hospital and watch over me like a 
Trojan. But I sha’ n’t get sick. Now, 
how is Benny?” 

Susie had calmed a little during Made¬ 
line’s easy speech. “ Oh, this cry will do 
me so much good,” she said. “ My heart 
has been aching for some such relief, but I 
would n’t give way. Now, I am so thankful 
to have relieved myself. Benny is a very, 
very sick little boy. It is dreadful to see my 
little active, roguish brother lying so still, 
or tossing in the fever calling for me, and I 
standing right beside him, trying to make 
him realize my presence. But it’s all right, 
Madeline, all right, my dear; the will of God 


202 


LINKS OF GOLD 


will be done, and as we heard at the meeting 
that last night I was there, our part is just 
to try to be trustful; and whether the 
precious child stays with me, or goes with 
Jesus to his mother, there will be no mis¬ 
take ! Oh, but I want him so to stay with 
me ! ” 

Poor Susie burst out afresh for a moment, 
but by an effort controlled herself. “ I Ve 
been so proud of my little brothers,” she 
went on ; “ so proud of my care of them ; so 
amused at their cunning pranks and their 
roguery! I know that if darling little 
Benny should leave us ? it never could seem 
the same again here at home—it never 
could ; still, it is such a comfort to believe 
that there will be no mistake, and that it 
will be all right. I know the girls are pray¬ 
ing for me, and dear papa is praying, and 
—oh, yes, whatever comes, it will be all 
right! ” 

The repeated cry of Susie’s trusting heart 
touched Madeline. 


IT WILL BE ALL RIGHT 1 


203 


“ It is a great thing to trust in God, is n’t 
it ? ” she said. 

“ Why, it’s everything! everything! ” 
cried Susie. “ Oh, be a Christian, Made¬ 
line,” she said with a sudden intensity, 
“ there’d be no end of good a girl like you 
could do. I mean—be a better Christian 
than you are.” 

“ Me ! I’m not one side of a Christian 
yet,” said Madeline with that unintentional 
drollery of expression which often caused a 
smile in serious moments. Then, after 
kissing Susie again and calling her “ a good, 
patient little dear,” Madeline went away 
and walked more than an hour, as she had 
promised herself she would do before re¬ 
turning to her uncle’s house. 

At the end of another ten days Benny 
was convalescing. There had been a night 
when neither Susie, her father, nor her aunt 
had left Benny’s side for a moment, and 
good Dr. Lorraine had stayed until past 
midnight and returned with the dawn. 


204 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Billy remained in perfect health. “ Look 
at him thin for the tough little bean he is,” 
Blinda said, kissing him. The doctor pre¬ 
dicted that, with the care Benny would be 
sure to have, his return to health would be 
speedy. 

A few weeks afterwards when Benny was 
eating about seven meals a day, Susie was 
taking a short walk in the bright spring sun¬ 
shine, Isabel and Addie beside her. “ I can 
tell you what it is,” Susie said, indicating 
Madeline Hunter, who with Pauline and 
Rebecca was sauntering on just ahead, “ I 
believe that girl is not far from the kingdom 
of God.” 


CHAPTER XIV 


LINKS FROM A FORGE UNSEEN 

It was a tempestuous night such as some¬ 
times visits the earth in mid-April. A 
month had slipped away since the sale had 
taken place. Melly Hoostan was reported 
a hopeful case, and the young friends had 
visited her at the hospital when in the city. 
Little Teena was drooping like a delicate 
flower, but always brightened at sight of any 
of the young girls. She invariably singled 
out Madeline Hunter, whose radiant smile 
and cooing words seemed to draw the little 
child irresistibly to her with signs of ad¬ 
miration and love. 

But this unusual mid-April evening was 

closing in with a wild, cold, dreary rain. 

205 


206 


LINKS OF GOLD 


The wind whistled mournfully through the 
budding trees, and the snowdrops and hya¬ 
cinths bowed their little heads, swaying pit¬ 
eously^ in the chilly blast. 

In his wide, cheerful library Colonel Felix 
Pellington sat listening to the sheets of 
rain beating against the windowpane. In 
his hands was a magazine which he was 
reading in an indifferent way, as though 
only half interested in the article before 
him. It seemed as though some spirit of 
the stormy air was moving the man to un¬ 
usual reflections, for all at once he laid the 
magazine on his knee and, with his elbows 
resting on the cushioned arms of the easy 
chair, clasped his hands in thoughful at¬ 
titude. 

Did the restless, crying wind emphasize 
his lonely condition midst the comforts sur¬ 
rounding him on every side ? Did the harsh, 
unsympathetic storm drive inward, forcing 
recognition of the condition of his heart, 
long shut to better impulses ? Was con- 


LINKS FROM A FORGE UNSEEN 207 

science struggling to assert itself in his 
sturdy but repressed nature ? 

There was a slight rustle along the thickly 
carpeted hall, and a servant entered and 
handed him a letter. “ A man dripping 
with the wet said he had been asked to hand 
this to you,” she said. 

u Do you know who he was ? ” asked the 
colonel. 

“ No, sir. He said he did not think any 
answer was expected to-night.” 

The woman vanished, and Colonel Pel- 
lington regarded curiously for a moment the 
stiff chirography and common-looking en¬ 
velope which he held in his hands. 

“ A woman’s writing, I should say, and 
one not accustomed to writing letters,” he 
mused. The next moment he had taken a 
dainty paper cutter, with handle of silver 
and blade of pearl, and neatly opened the 
envelope. The missive, at which Colonel 
Pellington’s eyes opened widely as he read, 
contained these words ;— 


208 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Honored Sir ,—I take my pen in hand to write you a few 
words, which I hope you will not think it |oo great a liberty 
for me, I am sure. I have wanted to thank you for a long 
time for the great kindness to us all nearly a month ago, 
which you showed. But I have never happened to meet you 
in the street since, and did not think it proper to call on a 
gentleman like yourself to say my thanks. But the beauti¬ 
ful flowers you paid for at the sale of the young ladies, then 
had sent to my poor home, did a sight of good, such as you 
could n’t dreamt of their doing, and my man could n’t take 
his eyes off them, and kept saying, “ To think of Colonel 
Pellington being so good and kind ! May the good God 
bless the dear gentleman ! ” If anybody ever says you do 
not much care for the feelings of poor folks, I shall say it is 
not true, they don’t know about it. Please do not feel 
angry with me or think I am bold, but my husband’s arm, 
which was broken last September, will not knit, they say ; 
the doctor complains his living is too low, but I do all I can, 
and my Sammy has been a cripple from his birth. I do all 
I can, kind Sir, I really do, but the cold weather lasts so 
unmerciful, and with the town only giving me a dollar and 
a half a week, one for him and a half a one for Sammy, and 
I working on shoes all I can get to do, we cannot beg, Sir, 
till the last minute ; but what with the rent and all, I can¬ 
not get the money for a little coal, and we do shiver so with 
only a little wood to burn and that most gone, I did get up 
my courage to ask could you kindly send us a little coal. 
Husband says I ought not to be afraid to ask a good gentle¬ 
men for a little coal who would send us a great, costly 
bokay. I bless God for the bright bit of cheer it made for 
us, and God will bless you for it, Sir, even if you do not 
think best to send the coal. I am very dutifully and re¬ 
spectfully, Hannah Wansted. 

P. S.—He sends his regards most kindly. 

Colonel Pellington threw the letter on the 


LINKS FROM A FORGE UNSEEN 


209 


table after replacing it in the envelope. 
“ Not a badly written letter,” he muttered, 
“ nor badly expressed.” Then he went back 
to his reflections. Presently he muttered 
again, “ I suppose it was that witch of a 
girl at Mr. Van Werter’s who carried the 
flowers to this woman and said I sent them, 
or gave the impression that I did. I re¬ 
member she said she must do something of 
the kind. I ought to have forbidden it de¬ 
cidedly. Now see what comes of departing 
from my regular rule of declining all invita¬ 
tions. One thing growing out of another, 
just like a chain clinking along, because of 
my yielding to those merry creatures who 
came inviting me to their sale, as they called 
it. 

“Well, there’s no denying I rather en¬ 
joyed the affair. First time I’d been into 
a bright, crowded room in years, and I 
would hardly confess the weakness to my¬ 
self, but I actually almost wanted to go 

the next night. Mercy I did n’t; no know- 
14 


210 


LINKS OF GOLD 


ing what the complications might have 
been.” 

He was silent for some time after that, 
then resumed : “ Seems to me they were ex¬ 
tremely pleased, for poor people, at having 
a great bunch of hothouse flowers given them. 
Rather a high-flown gift for a quiet person 
like myself. I wish that laughing girl had 
known better than to use my name.” 

The man’s reflections were still longer this 
time, but after a while he again drew forth 
the letter. “ Let’s see,” he said, “ what’s 
that about the Lord’s blessing me ? Oh ! 
he’s going to bless me whether I send them 
coal or not. Well, it’s a novel thing to say 
of me, I guess. I wonder—” 

He cut short what he was about to add as 
the blast sent the rain in a hissing torrent 
against the wide glass pane, and a shrill 
sweep of wind went wailing around the cor¬ 
ner of the house. Colonel Pellington looked 
around him, glanced at the wood fire sending 
up a crackling, cheery blaze, glanced at the 


LINKS FROM A FORGE UNSEEN 


21 i 


crowded bookcases, at the pictures on the 
wall, at tbe dainty cutter with which he had 
opened poor Hannah Wansted’s letter. 

“I wonder if they are cold to-night?” 
he murmured. “ Well, if they are, so are 
thousands of others. I could n’t relieve every 
one who might take a fancy to ask me for 
fuel. I wonder what set those girls out to earn 
money to help the poor, and why, if that 
was their object, they didn’t help this 
woman. They surely know all about her. 
Perhaps they did help her some. I wonder 
if that laughing witch set the woman up to 
writing me this letter ? ” , 

When Madeline Hunter carried William 
Wansted the flowers, she had also carried a 
generous bag of fruit and some candy, the 
nice odds and ends left from the sale. She 
did not discover that the family were in any 
particular stress at that time; if she had, 
she would surely have said so, as the 
Wansteds were people they would willingly 
have aided. 


212 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Colonel Pellington did not feel self-con¬ 
demned at once, and fly about, eager to send 
relief to the Wansteds’ door that night. 
Men so long encased in a selfish, indifferent 
life do not open wide their hearts at the first 
call of distress even that moves them. But 
he had spoken of a clinking chain, never 
dreaming that God was at the end of it, and 
that he could not resist being drawn with its 
links, try as he might to break them. 

All night the harsh storm raged. The 
blinds, secure as they were on the rich man’s 
house, creaked and strained in the bitter 
wind. “ I do n’t think I ever knew such a 
storm before in mid-spring,” he said to him¬ 
self at midnight. An hour later he arose 
from his bed to fasten a wedge in the window 
frame. He had just succeeded when there 
came a moment’s hush in the elements, a 
moment of such profound quiet that some 
whispering voice seemed speaking to his in¬ 
nermost soul. Peering forth he could only 
see the glistening pavement drenched where 


LINKS FROM A FORGE UNSEEN 


213 


the violent downpour had beat mercilessly 
along. Then with a sob and a rising of the 
wind the clamor again began. 

Colonel Pellington returned to his couch, 
but not to sleep. He was not nervous. His 
iron frame felt no approach of a tremor as 
in imagination he again heard the quiet 
voice that had whispered in his heart. But 
memory, the haunting power, was at work. 
All along the track of a prosperous business 
life the man looked back, feeling, to his 
honor be it said, a momentary flush of shame 
at the barren showing. Honest he had 
been to the letter. But at never a fireside 
except his own had glowed a fire of his 
kindling. By never a bedside had a helping 
hand of his been stretched in kindly aid. 
Never a child had laughed in thankful glee 
at a holiday toy or bag of sweets his money 
had paid for. He was, however, a man of 
iron nerve. He made no resolves, arrived 
at no definite purpose as to any future 
deeds. He did think that, come morning, he 


214 


LINKS OF GOLD 


might send a half a ton of coal to William 
Wansted’s little house. Then he turned 
over and slept, his last waking thought being, 
that perhaps he might go himself to William 
Wansted’s and tell the truth about those 
flowers. Then, if he saw evidences of great 
poverty, he would decide in how far it was 
best to help them. 

The storm did not cease with the night, 
although the wind went down. The air was 
almost frosty as Colonel Pellington in stout 
overshoes and a great enveloping mackintosh 
ventured forth, the first man he met remark¬ 
ing on the danger the cold atmosphere might 
prove to the fruit trees. Colonel Pellington 
went immediately to William Wansted’s, 
where he was ushered into the living room, 
and looked around in surprise at the neat¬ 
ness yet bareness of the apartment. He 
almost shivered in his warm garments while 
talking a few moments with the cheerful, 
loquacious little woman who gave him no 
opportunit}^ of denying having sent the 


LINKS FROM A FORGE UNSEEN 215 

flowers until she had poured forth afresh her 
delight, and her man’s delight and Sammy’s 
delight at the beautiful gift. “ They are 
sweet yet, sir,” she added, producing a paper 
box in which rose leaves and other faded 
flowers were carefully preserved. 

“ I did not really send those flowers,” be¬ 
gan Colonel Pellington— 

“ Oh, I know, sir! ” broke in the eager 
woman as the colonel’s slow speech made 
her suppose he had paused ; “ that hand¬ 
some creature said you paid for them, but 
would n’t bring them yourself, or something 
like that, but we bless you for them just the 
same; and it was your goodness made us 
bold to ask the favor that we did, and please, 
sir, can you say it did not offend you ? ” 
Colonel Pellington somehow could not say 
to the thankful, beaming little woman that 
he really had nothing to do with her receiv¬ 
ing the flowers. He had on some occasions 
met and scantily aided the wretchedly poor, 
but here was a new phase of poverty, where 


2 l6 


LINKS OF GOLD 


well-meaning, respectable people needed 
many of the common necessaries of life. 
The husband with his good right arm in a 
sling sat in a high-backed wooden rocker. 
A boy of ten or twelve was at a table eating 
some oatmeal with a sparing quantity of 
black molasses over it; and without really 
knowing it, Colonel Pellington noticed the 
effort the child made to swallow the food. 

“ Did n’t it occur to yon,” the colonel 
asked with a grim smile, “ that flowers were 
a strange present to send you ? ” and he 
looked directly at William Wansted. 

“ No, sir, not at all,” was the unhesitating 
reply. “It is common to send flowers to 
the sick, and the poor get but few. We ’re 
the kind as are grateful for anything. The 
young lady brought fruits left from their 
sale, and some sweets. I suppose there 
Were not a great many things there to help 
us much.” 

It was a new role for Colonel Pellington, 
being looked upon as a donor, a friend, a 


LINKS FROM A FORGE UNSEEN 217 

man whom God would bless. He rather 
liked it. All at once he began asking ques¬ 
tions, curious, inquisitive questions, and, man 
fashion, without mincing matters. How 
did they live ? What did they have to eat ? 
Could nothing be done for Mr. Wansted’s 
arm, nothing for Sammy? And it was 
a straightforward story of poverty, half- 
hunger, and inability to meet pressing 
needs that he heard. Dr. Lorraine had tend¬ 
ed her husband kindly, never asking for 
pay, but said plainly the services of a 
“ special ”—she meant specialist—would be 
required to effect a possible cure. For Sam¬ 
my there was no help ; a cripple he was born, 
a cripple he would be through life. The 
willing, overtaxed wife and mother worked 
often far into the night striving to meet the 
wants of her dear little family, and all so 
grateful for flowers. 

“ I ’ll send around some coal and provi¬ 
sions,” said Colonel Pellington as he arose 
and took up his umbrella, and before Mrs. 


2 l8 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Hannah Wansted could break into a vortex 
of thanks, he was gone. 

Some hours later, near noon, Rebecca Lor¬ 
raine knocked at the door. Her father had 
asked her to carry a pail of soup to William 
Wansted’s, left over from dinner the day be¬ 
fore. Just inside the door, Rebecca paused 
in astonishment. Boxes and bundles lit¬ 
tered the table, a man was shoveling coal 
into the shed, Hannah Wansted was talking 
and crying with all her might. William 
Wansted kept pressing a handkerchief to 
his eyes. 

“ Oh, it is you is to be thanked! ” cried 
Hannah; “ you and all the other blessed 
young ladies that begun a good work and 
set things going for our help.” 

Rebecca stood patiently holding the pail 
of soup, not quite seeing the way clear to set 
it down while Hannah ran on : “ First, that 
pretty beauty brought the flowers, and I was 
that grateful to Colonel Pellington for his 
part in it, I wrote my thanks and made bold 


LINKS FROM A FORGE UNSEEN 219 

to ask just for a little coal. He was here 
himself this morning, the colonel was, and 
will you just look at the goodness and mercy 
of the Lord! Tea, coffee, sugar, syrup, 
crackers, lots of things and beefsteak! But 
do forgive me, miss, I might have let you 
hold that pail all night, my dear.” 

Once out of the Wansteds’ habitation, 
away sped Rebecca for a little call at Pau¬ 
line’s. There with rippling little laughs of 
satisfaction she recounted the items of her 
call at William Wansted’s. 

“ I said it was just like a chain,” Pauline 
began, “ the way things go on, and it is, 
is n’t it now? ” 

“ Oh, and if I’m not glad I caught that 
rigid old colonel in the meshes ! ” said Made¬ 
line. “ My ! I’d make quite a Dorcas of him 
if I had time. I only wish I could meet him. 
I’d tell him what a good, kind Samaritan I 
think he is, and then would n’t he feel 
grand! ” 


CHAPTER XV 


firemen’s day 

Pauline had been very desirous of keep¬ 
ing her cousin Madeline with her until they 
could go in company on their summer out¬ 
ing. But Madeline insisted that she must 
return to Chicago before the last of May, as 
preparations were needed before her flitting 
to the Adirondacks, where she hoped Pau¬ 
line would meet her in July. 

u I do n’t believe I shall go away as early 
as usual this summer,” Pauline had said. 
“ I usually go in June, but I think it’s a 
very long time to leave papa, and I notice 
papa is growing gray, and I want to be all 
the comfort to him I can.” 

“ As if you had n’t been like wife, sons, 

and daughters,” laughed Madeline. 

220 


FIREMEN'S DA Y 


221 


At heart Pauline felt there were other 
reasons that made her reluctant to leave 
Verona Roads as early as in previous years, 
and she thought that perhaps she ought to 
own this. 

“ To tell the truth, Maidie,” she went on, 
“ I think there is a growing interest among 
the young people in our church, and has 
been for several months. I own freely to an 
increasing interest in our prayer-meetings, 
and all things considered I shall be in no 
haste to go away until really hot weather sets 
in. You know a great many people come 
here for the summer, but of course I need a 
change, and papa always wants me to have 
it.” 

“ Well, I wouldn’t have believed prayer- 
meetings could have possessed the attraction 
forme that these have,” confessed Madeline. 
“ I shall quite miss them when I go back.” 

“ Why not try those in Chicago ? ” sug¬ 
gested Pauline. “ It seems a pity to aban¬ 
don the habit after having fallen into it.” 


222 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ Mercy on us ! ” cried Madeline, “ the girls 
I go with never are seen in such a place. 
Why, they ’d look at me as though they 
thought I’d 1 gone strange,’ at the mere 
mention.” 

“Well, but think of the good you might 
do,” persisted Pauline. “ You know just as 
well as I do, Maidie Hunter,” she added vig¬ 
orously and laughing a little, “ you could 
lead your associates even to a prayer-meet¬ 
ing if you wanted to. I know from little 
things you have inadvertently let slip that 
you rather lead in your circles.” 

“Yes, but I ’in in no shape to lead Allie 
Bumstead, Helen Carroll, and Jessie Potter 
to a prayer-meeting. Why, I’m i out of 
Christ’ myself, Poppy child.” 

“I think that sounds very sad, somehow, 
Maidie.” 

“ Yes,” rejoined Madeline, turning soberly 
around, “ it struck me as being kind of aw¬ 
ful the moment the words had passed my 
lips.” 


FIREMEN'S DA Y 


223 


The conversation was here interrupted by 
Kate, the maid, who came to say that Miss 
Trenton was in the library. 

“ I ’ve called,” said Isabel after greeting 
her friends, “ to see if you would n’t like to 
come to our house to-morrow to see a part of 
the firemen’s parade. They usually have it 
in the fall, but for some reason they have 
decided to have it the first week in May, so 
have Set to-morrow for the day.” 

“ Papa said something about it this morn¬ 
ing,” said Pauline, “ but I did n’t know it 
was to be so soon.” 

“ I’ve seen Susie and Rebecca and Addie,” 
Isabel continued, “ and they agreed with me 
that it would be pleasant to see them pass 
our house when they are all fresh soon 
after forming into line ; then we could go 
out and find some convenient place where 
they congregate, not far from the Common, 
and see the men climb the aerial ladder 
and all that.” And so it was agreed to 
do. 


224 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ What is Firemen’s Day ? ” asked Made¬ 
line after Isabel had gone. “Is it just a 
procession ? ” 

“ No,” said Pauline, “ it is more an exhibi¬ 
tion of steam fire engines and all the rest 
of the trappings than anything else. We 
have two steam engines and one chemical 
fire engine here at the Roads. I believe 
our department is quite proud of its equip¬ 
ments. Then they come in from Rockford, 
about seven miles from here one way ; and 
from Chester, five miles in another direction 
and nearer the city. Late in the afternoon 
there is a supper at the hall. Oh, it is quite 
a sight and very gay, I can assure you. 
Every one is out, there is a fine parade, a 
brass band, and all together considerable of 
a jubilee.” 

The next day the usually quiet streets of 
Verona Roads presented a lively, festive 
appearance. Flags waved in various direc¬ 
tions, and bunting was freely draped about 
the town hall. People of all ages and of 


FIREMEN'S DA Y 


225 


varying conditions seemed to have sprung 
like mushrooms from every quarter. From 
the broad-paned windows of Mr. Trenton’s 
house, six young girls, all tastefully attired, 
looked forth upon the buoyant throng. 

Soon the procession came in sight, the 
local fire companies having met the others 
at a given point, and an attractive show they 
made. A portly drum major, black as 
ebony, resplendent in a bright red coat with 
gold lace trimmings, preceded the band in 
conscious grandeur, twirling high a golden 
mace in dizzily revolving circles, varying the 
action by dexterously thrusting it around 
the back of his head with one hand and 
catching it with the other. 

The engines, with brasses and nickel plat¬ 
ings burnished until the sun’s rays glanc¬ 
ing athwart them seemed nearly blinding, 
were decked with streamers of ribbon and 
bunches of beautiful flowers. Scarce as 
garden flowers still were, there was no lack 
of adornment in the way of exotics as the 


226 


LINKS OF GOLD 


glittering engines had dashed into town be¬ 
fore forming into line. 

From the wheels of the Rockford engine, 
which were twined around with evergreens, 
also hung baskets of flowers ingeniously 
fastened so as to revolve with the wheels 
without becoming inverted. 

Four large, magnificent horses, two 
abreast, attached to the hose carriage from 
Chester, were a marvel of strength, glossi¬ 
ness, and beauty of build. Their heads and 
necks, clean shaven and as smooth as a cat’s, 
shone and gleamed in the light of the sunny 
day. From under their chins dangled long 
chains of gilt carried under and fastened 
beneath their bodies. As if conscious of 
their splendid appearance they ambled dain¬ 
tily along, their long shining necks curved 
haughtily, the chains glancing and the flags 
waving proudly. 

“ Oh, how pretty! How more than 
pretty ! ” cried enthusiastic Madeline as the 
imposing pageant swept by. 


FIREMEN'S DA Y 


227 


“ Come,” said Rebecca, “ now let’s go 
over by the Common and see the men climb 
the ladder.” 

They were soon in the vicinity of the 
Common, getting a comparatively good place 
on some steps to view the men whose in¬ 
trepidity, cool heads, and sure footing 
admitted of their literally leaping up a 
ladder held upright, fully eighty feet in 
the air. 

“ Oh, dear, how terrible! ” said Isabel as 
the hushed throng watched the perilous 
ascent. 

“ It is such a dizzy height even to look at,” 
said Pauline, holding her hand before her 
eyes. “ I really can’t endure to quite look,” 
she added, yet peeping nervously out of the 
corner of an eye. 

The man having clattered to the top of the 
ladder, stood upright, took a look around 
midst the breathless silence of the crowd, then 
came partly down from the giddy height, 
when the ladder was tilted a little, and he 


228 


LINKS OF GOLD 


swung himself with easy agility on to an 
awning some feet below. The people broke 
into a loud cheer midst clapping of hands, 
and the band began an inspiriting minuet. 

The girls waited while another man ac¬ 
complished the daring feat, and then Susie 
proposed their taking a walk to what was 
called the old part of the town. “ It is only 
a pleasant distance,” she said, “ such a lovely 
day as this.” They all were ready to leave 
the pushing crowd, and so paired off, “ three 
tiers, two and two,” Addie Fredricks said as 
they turned toward the more deserted streets. 
Their way lay beyond the Common, and 
they were passing through the pretty spot 
when Madeline remarked upon its beauty, 
and some one proposed they should sit down 
awhile on the iron benches and listen to the 
band just far enough away to make the 
music sound very pleasant. 

Time ran faster than they thought, chat¬ 
ting midst the green grass already cut evenly 
and shining in the sunlight. It was nearly 


FIREMEN'S DA V 


229 


an hour before they started up and resumed 
their walk. After going some distance they 
crossed the railroad track and were soon in 
a portion of Verona Roads where old-fash¬ 
ioned, stately looking houses were set back 
some distance from the sidewalk with broad, 
green terraces at the front. The wide side¬ 
walks were shaded by gigantic trees, remind¬ 
ing one how 

“ The children of men arise and pass 
Out of the world like blades of grass,” 

while the stalwart trees stand fair and tall, 
unshaken by wind, unmoved by storm, un¬ 
til a century or more has passed over their 
heads. 

“ Oh, I am so sorry Madeline can*t stay 
into June ! ” said Pauline. “ Everything is 
so beautiful with us now and will be until 
the trees grow dusty and droop with the 
heat.” 

(( But two months is a long time to have 
been away from home,” replied Madeline ; 
“ and papa wrote, I thought, a bit plaintively 


230 


LINKS OF GOLD 


in his last letter that he should be all ready 
to welcome his tall little girl whenever she 
appeared. But this has been the very 
pleasantest visit without exception that I 
ever made. I can ’t tell how I enjoyed the 
sale, and so many things have arisen in 
connection with it, I can’t help hoping you 
will have another next year and that I may 
be there to see. I thought that poor girl’s 
death at the hospital, the one they called 
Callie, was sad, although she was so ready 
to die ; and I know little Teena is just at 
the gates of Paradise, but for all these things 
there has been nothing to really mar my 
enjoyment, and I only wish you could all 
cotne to Chicago and make me a good long 
visit.” 

There was some laughing and chaffing 
at this as the girls proposed accepting the 
invitation and starting off in a body. 

“ Here is Miss Frobisher’s grand old 
house,” said Pauline as they approached a 
large, comfortable-looking mansion which, 


FIREMEN'S DA Y 


231 


like the others they had passed, was set 
back from the road, but with a graded lawn 
in front. 

“ What a lovely old house ! ” said Made¬ 
line, and she was about to add something 
else when Addie Fredricks suddenly stopped. 
“ Hark ! what’s that ? ” she said. On the 
crossing they had left well behind them, a 
train had dashed by, sending back a long, 
loud shriek after the manner of flying loco¬ 
motives. 

“ I heard the whistle of the engine,” said 
Susie Follansbee. 

“ No,—there! Oh, what is it ? ” cried 

Addie. 

A distinct clatter and din was rising on 
the air. Wild cries, thumping, flying hoofs, 
an indistinguishable uproar was increasing 
so rapidly that the girls in alarm unlatched 
Miss Frobisher’s gate, sprang into the court, 
and ran up the long, shallow, stone steps. 
Almost at the same moment the front door 
opened, and Miss Frobisher stepped out, 


232 LINKS OF GOLD 

dressed for a walk. The lady looked for a 
moment in astonishment at the half-dozen 
girls grouped on the steps. 

“ Something has happened ! ” said Pau¬ 
line Van Werter as the loud noise drew 
near. 

The street was wide where Miss Fro¬ 
bisher’s house stood, and from the steps it 
was easy to look far down the winding road. 
The short warning had scarcely escaped Pau¬ 
line before there was a wild flashing of brass 
mountings, a fierce, onrushing sound like a 
terrible stampede of ungovernable horses ; 
there were sparks of fire under pounding 
hoofs, a mad, appalling, oncoming race, a 
sudden snapping it appeared of reins and 
chains, one loud, united cry of command, 
then—chaos ! 

The girls gave involuntary exclamations 
of terror, and even self-possessed Miss Fro¬ 
bisher ejaculated, “ O Lord of mercy! ” as 
with a terrible crash two steam fire engines 
and a hose carriage mixed in a struggling, 


FIREMEN'S DA Y 


2 33 


awful mass of kicking or prostrate horses, 
escaping steam, and alas ! worst of all, 
wounded men. 

It was but a moment or two later that a 
flying mob came rushing pellmell upon the 
scene, which had reached the climax almost 
at Miss Frobisher’s door. The policemen 
were on hand with remarkable promptness 
at^d did their utmost to extricate the men 
whose terrible position and loud cries for re¬ 
lease, once heard, were not soon to be for¬ 
gotten. One engine was completely over¬ 
turned, another had careened and was rest¬ 
ing against the long hose carriage. All 
four of the powerful horses attached to the 
latter—alas for their recent pride and sleek¬ 
ness !—had fallen, and the two belonging to 
the overturned engine were also down. Men 
divested of all superfluous outer garments, 
with arms bared, were wrestling with the 
horses half dead with fright and bruises. It 
took nerve to quiet and control the dazed 
brutes whose rolling eyes, distended nostrils, 


234 


LINKS OF GOLD 


and quivering limbs pleaded for pity in their 
mute distress. 

Miss Frobisher and the girls stood on the 
steps and with averted faces listened to the 
loud clamor which hushed now and then at 
an effort more gigantic than the others. 
Soon men arrived with crowbars, and it be¬ 
came evident that the drivers, hurled from 

their seats when the collision came, were 

* 

speedily to be extricated, and the street 
grew quieter at once. 

Miss Frobisher declared she felt faint and 
proposed they should all go into the house 
and remain until at least a portion of the 
great crowd all about the sidewalk should 
disperse. 

The girls were only too glad to avail them¬ 
selves of the invitation, as it would have 
been difficult to pass through the gate and 
away, so close to the house was the scene of 
disaster. They had sat in the fine old parlor 
for about half an hour when a man ran up 
the steps and rang the bell violently. 


FIREMEN'S DA Y 


2 35 


u I Have let both my maid and house¬ 
keeper go out,” said Miss Frobisher as she 
immediately arose to answer the loud sum¬ 
mons. 

The man who faced her made no parley 
as to his errand. “ Say, madam, can an old 
fireman be brought in here ? We can’t move 
him but a precious few steps or he ’ll die 
right before our eyes. Bless God there’s no 
one killed outright, but Captain Rollins may 
die unless he has a bed at once. A surgeon 
happened to be in the crowd, and says every¬ 
thing depends on immediate action.” 

Miss Frobisher looked blankly at the 
girls. “ I have n’t got a bit of nerve,” she 
said, “ but if some of you young ladies will 
help me open a room and get a bed ready, 
the poor injured man is abundantly welcome 
to it.” 

“ You need n’t do the least thing, ma’am, 
only provide the bed,” said the man. “ Our 
comrades are as deft as women, come to a 
case in hand like this.” 


236 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ Very well, you can bring him in.” 

Miss Frobisher hurried up-stairs, followed 
by Rebecca and Susie. 

In a few moments the room was in readi¬ 
ness. Rebecca stood ready in the hall to 
show the men the way. The rest remained 
in the parlor with Miss Frobisher. They 
sat there motionless when the men entered 
the house silently, and went rather labori¬ 
ously over the stairs. 


CHAPTER XVI 

A LITTLE TENDER LINK 

IT transpired that on Firemen’s Day some 
races were to be in progress with the lighter 
fire carriages, and men running afoot were 
to draw them with ropes. So it was arranged 
that two of the fire engines, and the hose 
carriage with the double team from Chester, 
should be put up until after the races and 
the supper at an engine house just over the 
railroad track. 

No one knew whether the men driving 
were unduly excited by unhallowed stimu¬ 
lants, or whether the horses had become un¬ 
usually restive because of the glitter, the 
music, and the loud cheering surrounding 
them. Some men beside the drivers were 
2 37 


LINKS OF GOLD 


238 

perched on the engines ; several were cling¬ 
ing fireman fashion to the hose carriage. 
It was more than the drivers could do, even 
by sawing at the strong curbs in the horses’ 
mouths, to arrest them at the track as the 
thundering train was close upon them. By 
the mercy of God the track was barely 
cleared when the train roared by, sending 
back the wild screech at which a quiet horse 
will gather himself up in sudden alarm. 

Control of the horses had been almost 
lost when the mad scamper across the track 
had been taken, and it only needed the fierce 
whistle to render the terrified animals blind 
with fright. It was thought they rushed 
abreast of each other, then one engine shot 
ahead, and the horses in their desperate fear 
tried to turn, so mixing all in a hopeless 
overthrow. A few of the men leaped off, so 
perhaps saving their lives at risk of the fear¬ 
ful jump. 

Three men were so badly injured that 
their lives were nearly despaired of, but 


A LITTLE TENDER LINK 


2 39 


after a few days it was thought all but 
Captain Rollins would live. 

“ I really think,” said Pauline to some of 
her friends a few days after the accident, 
“ that we ought to go to Miss Frobisher’s 
and inquire if there is any way in which we 
could aid her. It is true some of us called 
the next day and asked after Captain Rollins, 
but I think we should offer to help her if we 
can.” 

“So do I,” said Rebecca. “We were 
ready enough to ask her to our sale, and she 
came both nights, leaving not a little sum 
behind her. So although I do n’t see what 
we could do, we could at least call and offer 
our services.” 

“ How many of us do you think had better 
go at once ? ” asked Pauline. 

“You and I invited her to the sale,” said 
Rebecca ; “ suppose you and I go and make 
the offer, and take Madeline with us.” 

“ The offer must include us all,” said 
Addie Fredricks, 


240 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ Very well, that is what we will do,” 
Pauline answered. 

The next day the three girls called. Miss 
Frobisher received them cordially, but with a 
doleful look. “ It does me good to see some 
fresh young faces,” she said, her own fine 
countenance lighting a little as she spoke. 
“ I do n’t think there is much you young 
ladies can do, yet there possibly might be 
one direction in which a little service would 
be acceptable. The members of the fire 
department are very kind and efficient in 
watching the poor sufferer at night, but of 
course they are all men who are employed 
during the day. 

“ The day nurse whom they have hired is a 
very good sort of woman, but the sick man 
has some wants she does not appear to meet 
as she might. There has been no time since 
he was injured that Captain Rollins could 
be removed with safety, and I understand 
he is a man without family and no means to 
speak of, so he is welcome to his bed here. 


A LITTLE TENDER LINK 


241 


I know it is a comfortable one. But does it 
not seem strange that, after living in strict 
retirement for years, my borne should be in¬ 
vaded through so painful a circumstance ? ” 

“ I think you consented very willingly 
and very kindly to having the poor hurt 
man brought here,” said Pauline. 

“ Oh, I’m a woman with a woman’s heart, 
I hope,” responded Miss Frobisher. “ I 
never thought for a moment of refusing to 
merely shelter the poor man ; he is one of 
a class who defend us and our property and 
do it nobly, and I could not be ungrateful 
enough to forget it. And it is really no in¬ 
convenience to me to have him here, as it 
would be to a great many.” 

Miss Frobisher paused as if a little at a 
loss how to express what she wanted to say 
further. After a moment, however, she re¬ 
sumed :— 

“ The fact is something like this : I have 
my beliefs, and I have my disbeliefs, and I 

am not altogether ungodly. I never was. 

16 


242 


LINKS OF GOLD 


But here is a fellow-being dying under my 
roof, a man not very far from his threescore 
years and ten. A few days ago he was full 
of vigor, with an active, v/iry frame, and felt 
himself ‘ good,’ as he expressed it, for ten 
years more of busy, useful life. Now here 
he is stricken down in a moment. He has 
cared nothing for serious things and is, I 
think, superstitiously opposed to seeing a 
minister. 

“ I wish your good father could have been 
called,” Miss Frobisher added, looking at 
Rebecca, “ for I know he is a Christian man, 
who would think of a man’s soul as well as 
his body, but Dr. Loud was summoned the 
first day, and so has kept the case. That 
surgeon, who it appears was here from Ches¬ 
ter at the time of the accident, came yester¬ 
day for consultation with Dr. Loud, and they 
agreed that the internal injuries had been so 
great that Captain Rollins is not at all likely 
to recover. Nor do they think he will lin¬ 
ger long. He does not know just the con- 


A LITTLE TENDER LINK 


243 


elusions arrived at, but I think lie feels sure 
they were not favorable. 

“ Now, what I thought was, that possibly 
you young ladies might take turns in com¬ 
ing to read a little while each afternoon, 
soon after dinner, which is the sick man’s 
best time. You might begin with the news¬ 
paper, and then, without consulting him, 
from a small Testament which you could 
carry in your pocket, read a few words each 
day. I will have such a Testament on the 
table in the hall, and you could select a few 
verses before coming, if you chose, and so 
know just where to turn. That man is going 
to die, and I think it is dreadful to think of 
his slipping into eternity, or, as Dr. Comp¬ 
ton would say, into ‘ the next room,’ with¬ 
out some proper preparation. Dr. Compton 
says we are in eternity now, but it is this 
‘ next room ’ Captain Rollins ought to be 
willing to think of.” 

Rebecca spoke first in reply, assuring 
Miss Frobisher she would have the cordial 


244 


LINKS OF GOLD 


consent of at least four young ladies to do as 
she had hinted. And Pauline with a rising 
flush said she must be considered a fifth one 
willing to do what she could. 

“ I would offer to come,” said Madeline 
Hunter, “ but there is a little child dying 
at the hospital in the city, who, they tell 
me, watches for my visits, asking for me 
continually as she grows weaker. So on 
the days when my cousin Pauline comes 
here, and perhaps oftener, I will go to my 
little Teena. And I—ought to read my 
Bible for myself to begin with. Pauline 
does so already, I know.” 

The frank girl could not help the word 
of truth at the end of what she had to say. 

Miss Frobisher, with all her erect, distant 
carriage, unbent visibly as she bade the girls 
good-bye. “ The day nurse is a poor reader,” 
she said. “ My services would soon grow 
prosaic and distasteful in the sick-room, so 
I am glad and relieved to find that it is not 
all pleasure you young people are willing to 


A LITTLE TENDER LINK 


245 

think of in this world of stern realities and 
discipline.” 

This was Saturday. On Monday Rebecca 
Lorraine went to Miss Frobisher’s for her 
first reading by Captain Rollins’ bedside. 
On the way home she stopped at Pauline’s. 

“ What did Captain Rollins say,” Pau- # 
line asked, “ when you finished reading the 
Bible ? ” 

“ Not one word. He never made a re¬ 
mark, no more than as if he had not heard. 
He showed some interest in what I read 
from the newspaper, but when I closed the 
Testament which I had had in my pocket 
and produced rather as a matter of course, 
he simply lay looking around without a 
comment.” 

“ Oh, dear,” wailed Pauline, “I’m afraid 
my voice will go all in quavers when I come 
to the Bible reading part. My turn comes 
to-morrow.” 

“ Never mind, Poppy,” said Rebecca 
cheerily, “ that’s the thing for us to do, and 


246 


LINKS OF GOLD 


unless he absolutely forbids it and refuses 
to listen, we must keep right on.” 

After the Tuesday evening meeting, at 
which Pauline was as regularly present now 
as her friends, the others were anxious to 
know how she had fared in the afternoon 
with her reading, which naturally enough 
had been a dread, as it was a different matter 
for her, dear child! than for her compan¬ 
ions, whose habits had been such as to render 
the service far easier. 

“ Well,” began Pauline, “ I fared perhaps 
a little better than ’Becca. During the 
newspaper reading he was evidently quite 
interested. After I had produced the Testa¬ 
ment and read the little I did, he said, 
1 Didn’t I understand you was Norman Van 
Werter’s daughter ? ’ I said, ‘ Yes, Mr. Van 
Werter is my father.’ ‘ Does he take much 
to the Bible ? ’ he asked. I told him my 
father was a man who always had respected 
religion and I thought wished me to. I 
should have felt like resenting his manner 


A LITTLE TENDER LINK 


247 


in questioning me had lie been a well man, 
but I choked back all such feelings and 
tried to answer as kindly as I could. Then 
all he said was, that religion was a first-rate 
thing for women and children, but he had 
an idea men could get along with a pretty 
small dose.” 

“ And it’s only a small dose we give him 
at a time,” said Addie Fredricks. 

“ Of course,” Pauline resumed, “ he is a 
sick man; one who has thought or cared 
very little about God, I am afraid, and, I 
should suppose, one also who has not been 
accustomed to what would be considered the 
finer things of life; but now it is the man’s 
soul that must be thought of.” 

The girls remembered how they had once 
said it was Pauline’s precious soul they 
wanted to think of, and now, so soon, she 
was expressing solicitude for the soul of 
another. Link following link indeed! 

But Pauline had something yet to say. 
“ I can’t help thinking,” she began, “ that 


248 


LINKS OF GOLD 


I assume a kind of false position in reading 
the Bible to that man, just as if I was a 
Christian myself, when I am not. I felt 
nearly impelled to tell him so this after¬ 
noon ; then I was afraid it might weaken 
any little influence the reading might have 
had over him, unconcerned as he seemed.” 

“You were doubtless wisely prevented 
from saying any such thing, Poppy,” said 
Susie Follansbee’s motherly voice. “ I think 
it would have been unnecessary and a mis¬ 
take. You make no false profession in 
simply reading the Bible to a sick man, so 
do n’t let that trouble you, dear. I’m afraid 
when it comes my turn I shall have to put 
in a comment or two.” 

“ He is a very sick man,” said Rebecca. 
“ After papa had been talking with Dr. 
Loud a day or two ago, he said it would be 
a very unusual case if a man injured in tjiat 
way should recover.” 

“ Then pray let us do all we can while 
we can,” said Isabel with energy. 


A LITTLE TENDER LINK 


249 

“ Where is Madeline ? ” asked Addie Fred¬ 
ricks. u I Ve been going to inquire ever 
since we met.” 

“ So have I,” said two others at once ; and 
Pauline replied: “ Maidie went to the hos¬ 
pital this afternoon, and just before supper 
there came a telegram for me, saying that 
little Teena was only just alive, and 
she couldn’t leave her. Just like Maidie! 
But papa is going into the city, so she 
can come out on the last train, if she 
will. We don’t want her to stay at the 
hospital all night, unless she feels she 
must.” 

At eleven o’clock, when the last train 
came in from the city, Madeline Hunter re¬ 
turned with her uncle. Something in her 
face stopped the question on Pauline’s lips 
as they met. 

“ She’s gone home,” Madeline said with 
a queer,. repressed little smile. “ I was 
holding the little rose leaf when she 
slipped over the brink, and it seemed to 


250 


LINKS OF GOLD 


me I just watched a little link slip out of 
sight.” 

That was all until the girls were prepar¬ 
ing for bed. 

“ I shall never, never feel about death 
again as I always have up to this time,” 
Madeline began in the repressed, quiet man¬ 
ner that had characterized her smile, and 
meantime combing out her long, dark hair. 
“ And I hn so glad, Poppy dear, that I’ve 
had just this experience while I ’m young. 
I’ve always thought, as most girls do, that 
it must be awful, perfectly awful, to see any 
one die. But when I reached the hospital 
this afternoon, I saw at a glance it would 
soon be all over with that little tender baby; 
and if you ’ll believe it, the kitten knew me ! 
Far gone as she was, she stretched out her 
little waxen hands and kissed me when I 
bent over her. All she could say was 1 Stay! 
stay! ’ in short, panting breaths. And I 
said ‘ Yes, little darling, Maidie ’ll stay.’ She 
kept dropping asleep after that. On open- 


A LITTLE TENDER LINK 251 

ing her blue eyes she would smile up into 
my face. And what do you think was the 
last word she said? ” 

“ What was it, Maidie ? ” 

“ After she ’d drooped and drooped, until 
I certainly thought the little spirit had fled, 
she all at once looked into my face again 
and said faintly but clearly, ‘ Come! ’ The 
next moment her little head fell forward. 
The nurse laid her head back against my 
arm,—I did start for a moment, for the light 
had gone out of the blue eyes,—but the nurse 
closed them very gently, and then the sweet¬ 
ness of that little, little face! 

“ The nurse said, ‘ I ’ll take her now,’ but 
I said, ‘ Oh, no, not yet; let me have her a 
little while. I want to look at her, and look 
at her. I may never hold an angel again.’ 

“ I can’t explain it, Poppy, and you may 
think it fanciful, but I had the strangest 
feeling. It did n’t seem strange at all at 
the time, but I felt exactly^as though I had 
almost peeped into the kingdom of heaven. 


252 


LINKS OF GOLD 


O Poppy!”' she cried in a sudden tone of 
weeping, “ I believe Christ came himself 
and lifted that baby out of my arms into his 
own! ” 

Then, with her hair falling like a dark 
shower over her white shoulders and arms, 
Madeline buried her face in her hands, and, 
for the first time in her life, Pauline saw her 
beautiful cousin perfectly convulsed with 
weeping. 

Nearly a week had passed, and it again 
became Pauline’s turn to read to Captain 
Rollins. She could not help dreading it, 
especially, as two days previously, when 
Isabel Trenton had been reading, the man 
had what the nurse called a “weak spell,” 
and Isabel had been stopped in the midst of 
her Bible verses and went in to sit with Miss 
Frobisher, who said it was a great comfort to 
have a young person around when her house 
was so sad and solemn. It had been quiet 

before, but now there was a shade over 

» 

everything. 


A LITTLE TENDER LINK 


2 53 


“Yet God has surely ordered all this for 
some wise, kind purpose,” Isabel said 
with such an assurance of simple faith that 
Miss Frobisher replied in a new tone for 
her:— 

“I’d give much for your unquestioning 
faith, child; but God has seemed far off to 
me. I called to him once in dire distress, 
but he did not answer.” 

“ Oh, he answered, dear Miss Frobisher! ” 
Isabel exclaimed softly. “ We ’re particu¬ 
larly taught to believe in our prayer-meet¬ 
ings that God answers just as truly when 
he does not answer in our way as when he 
gives us what we ask. God never failed to 
hear and answer a cry that went up to him 
from a human heart, and he must have 
answered your troubled prayer in the best 
way in his sight.” 

“ But if it altered your whole life, my 
child ? ” 

“ He heard and answered just the same.” 

“You ’re very sincere in believing it,” 


254 


LINKS OF GOLD 


said Miss Frobisher with an intent, question¬ 
ing smile. 

“ I know it, Miss Frobisher! I know 


it! 


CHAPTER XVII 

“ PRAY, GIRL, PRAY ” 

As Pauline was entering Miss Frobisher’s 
house to take her turn at reading by the 
sick man’s conch, she met that lady going 
out. 

“ I have an errand down town, Miss Van 
Werter,” she said, “ but the nurse will sit 
just inside my room and I shall not be gone 
long. Captain Rollins seems quite comfort¬ 
able to-day, and I cannot help thinking 
there is some change in his state of mind for 
the better. He asked me yesterday whose 
turn it was to read, and when I said Miss 
Follansbee’s, he said, ‘ Oh, the little girl who 
makes bright remarks as she reads along! ’ 

I said I thought you were nice young ladies, 
255 


256 


LINKS OF GOLD 


and lie smiled as if secretly amused and said, 
‘ Yes, they ’re a pretty cute lot; they whip 
out their little Testaments every time, but 
they know enough not to read too much at 
once. ’ ” 

This encouraged Pauline, and it was a 
bright, sweet face that met the sick man’s 
eyes a moment later. But although Miss 
Frobisher had said Captain Rollins appeared 
more comfortable that day, it struck Pauline 
that his face was much paler than when she 
saw him before, and there was a shrunken 
look about his features that she noticed with¬ 
out, after all, thinking much about it. 

The newspaper occupied her for some time; 
then Pauline took out the Testament. She 
had thought that the words read at the church 
Sunday morning would be very appropriate 
for her to-day, and she was composedly read¬ 
ing how the Lord was “ not willing that any 
should perish but that all should come to 
repentance,” when some sound arrested her 
attention, and she looked up to see Captain 


“PRAY, GIRL, PRAY 


257 


Rollins with his eyes fixed upon her face, 
and laboring for breath. She thrust the 
Testament quickly into her pocket and ran 
for the nurse. 

“ Oh, another weak spell! ” said the nurse, 
going quickly to the bedside-and raising Cap¬ 
tain Rollins’ head. “ Will you please get 
me that bottle on the table,” she said, “ and 
hand me a teaspoon ? ” She slipped another 
pillow deftly under the sick man’s head and 
tried to make him swallow something from 
the spoon. 

Pauline trembled like a leaf as with an 
effort Captain Rollins succeeded in swallow¬ 
ing the liquid, but the labored breathing did 
not ease, neither did he cease to follow Pau¬ 
line with his eyes. 

“ I think he wants to speak to you, miss,” 
said the nurse ; and bending close to the 
pillow and speaking slowly and distinctly as 
if his hearing might be going, she asked, 
“ Did you want to say anything to the young 

lady?” 

r 7 


LINKS OF GOLD 


258 

There was an evident struggle to speak, 
but the words could not come, and Pauline 
was wondering if she could slip out of the 
room when Miss Frobisher appeared in the 
doorway, and oh, what a relief! Madeline 
was with her. 

“ I thought I’d come over and walk back 
with you,” Madeline began; “ and Miss 
Frobisher asked me to come up ; ” but at 
a glimpse toward the bed Madeline started 
in surprise, while Miss Frobisher repeated 
under her breath the words of the nurse, 
“ Oh, another of those weak spells ! ” 

But the effort the sick man was making 
had grown truly piteous, and Pauline, who 
felt greatly calmed by Miss Frobisher’s and 
Madeline’s appearance, began to wish he 
could find strength to articulate. 

At length, by what appeared a supreme 
forcing of the will, Captain Rollins called 
out hoarsely, “ Pray, girl, pray! ” 

The command staggered Pauline com¬ 
pletely. What could she do ? Never since 


PRAY, GIRL, PRAY 


2 59 


she was a tiny girl at her mother’s knee had 
she heard her own voice in prayer. She 
looked helplessly at Miss Frobisher, the 
nurse, Madeline, then at the sick man, whose 
eyes were still calling for a prayer. She 
wished one of her mates had only been in 
her place; any of the others would have 
prayed without a moment’s hesitation or 
embarrassment. The thought helped her. 
A word from Madeline helped her still more. 

“ There is n’t much time to lose, Poppy 
dear. Why do n’t you pray ? ” 

Why indeed ? The simple query stimu¬ 
lated her. She went close to the bed. 

“ Speak loud,” whispered the nurse. 

And in a clear voice Pauline only said : 
“ Our Father, which art in heaven, save this 
man. He wants to be saved. Dear Father, 
save him for Jesus’ sake, and—save ns all. 
Amen.” 

When Pauline looked up, the sick man 
had closed his eyes as if satisfied, but the 
laborious breathing went on. Then, to the 


26 o 


LINKS OF GOLD 


relief of all, Dr. Loud was announced, and 
Miss Frobisher Pauline, and Madeline went 
to the parlor. 

After what seemed a long time Dr. Loud 
appeared. “ I think,” he said, “ there will 
be no recurrence of extreme weakness to¬ 
night. Captain Rollins has rallied again 
and is breathing without effort. I trust this 
suspense may not last much longer.” 

As nothing further remained for the girls 
to do, they soon took their leave. 

“ What an experience ! ” exclaimed Pau¬ 
line as they turned away. “ Really, Made¬ 
line, I scarcely know what to think of it.” 

“ Well, I ’m sure,” began Madeline in her 
easy, common-sense way, so reassuring at 
such a time, “ I think you ought to be thank¬ 
ful that God let you help that poor man as 
you did. One thing is certain, he grew 
quieter and must have felt relieved as soon 
as he heard some one asking God to save 
him. I wish it had been me. I ’d have been 
glad of it all my life,” 


PRAY, GIRL , PRAY 


261 


“ Madeline !—I ’ll tell you what it is ! ”— 
Pauline stopped short in the street and 
spoke with such sudden vehemence and so 
much evidence of pent-up feeling or convic¬ 
tion that Madeline regarded her curiously. 

“Well, dear, I’m listening ; what is it ? ” 

“ I ’ve got to be a Christian ! It’s no use 
standing out a moment longer. When I 
said, ‘ Save us all,’ I really prayed for my¬ 
self as much as for that poor man. I’ve 
been feeling it all along, ever since—oh, 
soon after I began going to our prayer- 
meetings, and mingling more constantly 
with those girls whose sincere Christian 
lives are such an example. I believe there 
is something contagious in it all. I sha’ n’t 
say anything about it to the others just at 
present, because I want to tell papa before 
I tell any one else except you; but there 
is no true living out of Christ, and I feel 
it through and through. Now I shall have 
a talk with papa, just as soon as I can 
conveniently j then I shall go to the next 


262 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Young People’s meeting and get right up 
and tell of my new resolves. I wish you 
were going to be here and could follow 
me.” 

“Well, you see, Poppy dear, I’m glad to 
have you do what .you think is right, as glad 
as can be, but I’m too honest to pretend 
a single thing I do n’t quite feel. If I should 
go back to Chicago and tell my friends I 
had become converted, there’d be the greatest 
powwow you ever heard ! ” 

Pauline gave a little fleeting shudder of 
laughter at her cousin’s characteristic ex¬ 
pression, but Madeline without noticing it 
went soberly on :— 

“ Papa never says the first thing to me 
about serious matters, no more than Uncle 
Norman does to you. I should n’t be sur¬ 
prised in the least if he took it for granted 
that I am a Christian at heart.” After a 
moment she added :— 

“ There has been so much to enjoy ever 
since I came here that I shall always feel 


PR A Y, GIRL, PR A V 


263 


that the pleasure went far ahead of anything 
that was sad or somber. As for that blessed 
little angel that took a notion to me and 
wanted me to mother her a bit, I think 
there’s something in my nature that rather 
springs to a chance like that. It does n’t 
seem to me as I look back on it like one of 
the sad things in life any longer, but more 
like one of the glad things. I said the other 
day that nothing had happened to mar my 
enjoyment of this visit, and right upon it 
came that accident. But it does n’t exactly 
mar my enjoyment. Fact is, we must have 
some shady things in a world like this.” 

“ Yes, and I mean to be prepared for 
them,” said Pauline. “ And I hope it won’t 
be long before I shall hear you have made 
up your mind to be the Christian you might 
be, Maidie.” 

“ Should n’t wonder a bit if you heard it 
any day,” said Madeline. “ Once let me 
feel way down in my heart that the time 
has come when I must say as you have, 


264 


LINKS OF GOLD 


‘ I can ’t stand out a moment longer/ and I 
sha’ n’t stop for anything. When I become 
a Christian, I shall be one all over.” 

Pauline looked at her beautiful cousin and 
smiled. “ I do like to think what a Chris¬ 
tian yon will be when the time comes,” she 
said. 

Greatly to the astonishment of every 
one, Captain Rollins seemed slowly to revive, 
and gave signs of creeping back to life 
again after the critical afternoon when Pau¬ 
line’s voice of prayer had penetrated his 
dulled senses. The next time he was read 
to, which was not for two or three days, he 
did not hesitate to express gratification at 
the gracious words falling on his ears. 

“ I must ’a’ come pretty nigh slippin’ off 
while Mr. Van Werter’s daughter was askin’ 
God to save me,” he said to Susie; “ for 
I recollect just hearing that much, then 
seemin’ to fall away into silence.” 

Susie followed up the important subject 
with all the seriousness she thought safe 


“ PR A Y, GIRL,, PR A V” 265 

with so feeble a man, and was rejoiced at the 
quick confession which followed. 

“ Oh, I ain’t goin’ to pretend I did n’t feel 
I’d made a great mistake when I thought 
the end was come,” Captain Rollins added. 
“ I’d expected to go as I’d lived, sort o’ in- 
diff’rent; but if I die or live, I’m goin’ to 
let right out that I’ve give up all unbelief. 
My comrades begin to talk as if I was goin’ to 
get about again, after all. If I do, they ’ll 
find I’ve changed my idees a good deal since 
I got hurt.” 

After a few more days it was decided that 
the sick man could be removed without great 
risk, and as it was going to relieve his com¬ 
rades as well as perhaps hasten his recovery, 
he was taken to the hospital. And when 
eventually he crept back to comparative 
health, it was to retain strong hold on the 
repentance he had felt on what was so nearly 
his deathbed. 

The day after his removal Rebecca pro¬ 
posed that all six of their band should call 


266 


LINKS OF GOLD 


in a body on Miss Frobisher. u She has 
had a melancholy time of it,” Rebecca said, 
“ and I imagine is naturally inclined to de¬ 
pression, so I think it will cheer her if we 
make a little friendly visit.” The girls all 
thought the proposal a good one. 

On the way to Miss Frobisher’s the next 
day, Colonel Pellington’s towering form 
came in view at a turn in the road. At 
sight of him, Madeline’s face broke into 
a dangerous show of mischievous dimples. 
“ Oh, here comes my dear colonel,” she 
said ; “ now for it! ” 

As the dignified man drew near, he lifted 
his hat gravely to the young people, but 
paused involuntarily at Madeline’s bright 
face smiling up at him with a genial ex¬ 
pression as though she had something to 
say. 

“ I only wanted to thank you,” she said, 
“ for having been the means of causing me 
to make a call long to be remembered. I 
hardly know as it is called for, or exactly 


PRAY, GIRL, PRAY » 


267 


proper for me to say anything to yon about 
your goodness to poor people ; but if you 
could only hear the blessings called down on 
your head and the gratitude that the Wan- 
steds hardly dare express in your hearing, 
I ’m sure it would do you good. That poor, 
patient man sat so long holding his right 
arm, and the poor woman wondered for such 
an age if the tide was ever going to turn, 
that when you turned it for them, she just 
thanked God and has sung hallelujah ever 
since. I really thought I ought to tell yon 
something of the joy that your gift of flowers 
only started.” 

“ I was a little surprised at being ad¬ 
dressed with reference to those flowers from 
the parties receiving them,” said Colonel 
Pellington with a quiet smile. 

“ Were you ? ” asked Madeline, opening 
wide her eyes in innocent wonder. “ Why, 
I tried my best to choose the very worthiest 
objects my limited knowledge of the people 
here enabled me to think of, 011 whom to 


268 


LINKS OF GOLD 


bestow them, and they made the Wansteds 
so happy.” 

“Have you a mother?” asked Colonel 
Pellington. 

“ No,” said Madeline, sobering. “ My 
mother died when I was a little girl, but I 
have a father, and I’m going back to papa 
in a few days. I’ve had a lovely visit.” 

“ I presume your father indulges you con¬ 
siderably ; ” and the colonel wore a more 
indulgent smile himself than he was at all 
aware of. 

“ Oh, dear, yes ! I’m all the family papa 
has, so we indulge each other ridiculously. 
I wish you knew my papa. You *d be sure 
to like him.” 

“ I have rather enjoyed meeting his 
daughter,” said the colonel; “ and perhaps 
I ought to say,” die added, assuming his 
usual gravity of expression, “ that the ac¬ 
quaintance may not have been entirely de¬ 
void of benefit on my part; ” and he again 
lifted his hat, this time in token of parting. 


“ PR A Y, GIRL, PR A Y ” 269 

The girls had sauntered along, but paused 
for Madeline to join them. 

“ Oh, such a victory ! ” squealed Madeline 
in a way to make the others shake with 
laughter. 

“ Maidie, what did you say to him ? ” 
asked Pauline, a note of genuine consterna¬ 
tion in her voice. a Don’t you know every¬ 
body is more than half afraid of Colonel 
Pellington ? ” 

“ Well, now I reckon, Miss Poppy Van 
Werter, that same Colonel Pellington has 
just confessed my acquaintance may not 
have been without benefit to him,” said 
Madeline with an assumption of sudden 
importance. “ He asked me if I had a 
mother,” she added more gently, “ and I 
told him of losing my mother when I was a 
little girl; and I just ached to say it was 
to papa he must address a little note if I 
had misappropriated his flowers and he con¬ 
sidered me in need of some parental training 
and counsel. But I was afraid that would 


LINKS OF GOLD 


270 

sound too free, so I only spoke lovingly of 
papa and said I wished lie knew him. I 
can assure you, Colonel Pellington is not 
a formidable person at all, only approach 
him in the right way; and I approached 
him in the right way, you see.” 

At Miss Frobisher’s the girls made a truly 
pleasant call. “ I am glad to see each one 
of you,” Miss Frobisher said, seating herself 
so she could face them all. And when the 
long “little friendly visit” was ended, they 
were urged in no uncertain terms of cor¬ 
diality not to forget her, but to “ come again 


soon.' 


CHAPTER XVIII 


THE TALK WITH PAPA 

Sti-ll another week had gone. Madeline 
Hunter had packed her great trunk and 
gone back to Chicago, much to the regret of 
the young associates who had known and 
liked her well. “ A girl no one could help 
becoming fond of,” had been the general 
verdict. 

“ Why, it seems as though Maidie had 
taken half of the house with her,” Pauline 
said on meeting night as she joined her 
friends. “ I knew I should miss her, but I 
did n’t realize how desolate it would seem 
without her.” 

Before Madeline’s departure she had been 
with Pauline to make three special calls. 

At William Wansted’s the young ladies 
271 


272 


LINKS OF GOLD 


learned of Colonel Pellington’s continued 
benefactions. 

“ I do really believe,” Mrs. Wansted said, 
“ that it only needs to wake some people up, 
and they ’re as muck surprised as any one 
else at the chances there are for helping 
others, and makin’ them happy, those that 
have a good deal to try them, I mean.” 

“ Oh, no, thank yon,” she said in reply 
to something Pauline had suggested, “ we 
sha ’n’t need any other outside help long’s 
I can keep at my shoe binding, and we ’re 
so encouraged in other ways. We have 
fuel for chilly days, thank the good Lord! 
and that’s a great thing for weak, ailing 
people; they feel the cold so, even in mild 
weather. Sammy, over there, has some 
beautiful puzzles and 1 cut up cards,’ I call 
them, that are no end of pleasure to him. 
There, he’s putting the United States to¬ 
gether this minute, and I’m ’fraid he ’ll get 
to doing it so quick by and by there won’t 
be so much fun in it any more. But then 


THE TALK WITH PAPA 


273 


he’s got England and Europe to match 
besides, ain’t you, sonny boy ? ” and she 
smiled over at Sammy, too busy with his 
dissected maps to find time to notice his 
mother’s visitors. 

At Mrs. Hoostan’s, relief was visible in 
one direction, discouragement in another. 
Melly was promised ultimate cure, and al¬ 
though the treatment caused considerable 
weakness at first, yet the mother rejoiced at 
the assurance of better things for her child 
than she had once dared hope for. But Mr. 
Hoostan had been indulging in a more pro¬ 
tracted spree than usual, and poor lame 
Melly’s presence was sadly missed by her 
mother at such times. 

“ What a pity it is that Mr. Hoostan can ’t 
keep sober and at work, and let the drink 
go! ” said Madeline, for the woman had suf¬ 
fered too long and too openly to make any 
secret of her husband’s failing. 

“ Ay, leddy, he has nae wark at presint,” 

said Mrs. Hoostan, “ an’ ’t is no bein’ oot o’ 

18 


274 


LINKS OF GOLD 


wark I would say a word aboot, an be wad 
bide in tbe hoose an’ keep sober. But’t is 
discouraged be be, an’ no wonder, for be 
hae got tbe name noo that no man wants to 
hire him. I think cud be but make a fresh 
start be micbt do better, but’t is bard ivry 
way for a mon tbet dreenks.” 

Tbe third call was at tbe hospital, where 
a cheerful face greeted them. Melly was on 
a little iron bedstead undergoing tbe process 
which tbe surgeon now bad no hesitation in 
saying was putting her on tbe road to re¬ 
covery. If it must be tedious, it would pay 
in the end. 

“ Why, if the sale never effected another 
thing,” Pauline said merrily to Madeline 
when they were on the way home, “ only 
think what it is going to be to that lone crip¬ 
pled girl to be on her feet and to walk again ! 
That of itself would have been worth while, 
and it is not going to take a third of our 
money.” 

“ Well, Jesus Christ is not on earth now- 


THE TALK WITH PAPA 


2 75 


adays,” replied Madeline, “ to tell lame peo¬ 
ple to walk, and to say to sick people, ‘ Be 
healed/ but I sha’ n’t forget when I get back 
to great roaring Chicago how Christ enables 
good people to help the lame and to comfort 
the sick. What a great thing it was, Poppy, 
for you all at once to get up courage and 
offer the little prayer you did for that sick 
man ! Only think what it did for him then, 
and promises to do for him in the future ! ” 

“ I was thankful he lived,” said Pauline 
thoughtfully. “ I was glad to know my 
prayer, so brief and imperfect, was an¬ 
swered.” 

Madeline turned on her cousin a look of 
astonishment. “ Well, what did you expect 
as to its being answered ? ” she asked. 

“ I mean answered as I wanted it to be, 
Maidie,” Pauline replied, feeling the just 
rebuke at her lack of faith. u But I know I 
should n’t want to trust to such brief repent¬ 
ance. It seems altogether too venturesome.” 

“ Shockingly venturesome ! ” said Made- 


LINKS OF GOLD 


276 

line. A little more and that man might 
never have had a chance to ask even for 
a last prayer. But he had the chance, the 
prayer went up, and he must have made 
some sign for himself, I think, because even 
then he appeared satisfied. Yes, Poppy, it 
was a very close call, but your prayer prob¬ 
ably became his on the instant.” 

And serious to the last, as their conversa¬ 
tions often were, Madeline, caressing, witty, 
genuine-hearted Madeline, rejoiced when 
others saw and recognized their higher duty, 
yet seemed convinced the time had not yet 
come for her to acknowledge allegiance to 
the Saviour she said she loved, and meant to 
follow openly “ some time.” 

But Pauline had never for a moment 
wavered in the resolve that was born within 
her as she turned that day from Miss Fro¬ 
bisher’s door. Communion with her own 
heart only served to strengthen the convic¬ 
tions that had gradually yet deeply taken 
root within her soul. And the time had 


THE TALK WITH PAPA 


277 

come when she wanted to make known to 
others the bright new hope she cherished. 

“ But how to tell papa ? ” she thought, 
“ and what will he say ? He will not op¬ 
pose my entering the church, I know, but I 
do dread speaking to him because he never 
has said a word to me on such subjects.” 

Then she recalled the night back in the 
winter when she had divulged her plan of 
the sale, and fancied her father was on the 
point of saying something “ particular ” to 
her, but had desisted. 

“ Well, we ’ll have a talk now at any rate,” 
Pauline assured herself over and over again. 
“ The very first time I see a good chance of 
not being interrupted I will certainly tell 
papa all there is in my heart.” 

The “ chance ” was close at hand. It was 
a dull, showery evening, and as the dark¬ 
ness slowly deepened Pauline sat exactly as 
she had once before, just back of her father 
on the other side of the library table. The 
room was cheerfully lighted, and Mr. Van 


LINKS OF GOLD 


278 

Werter, absorbed in his newspaper, knew 
nothing of the intent look with which his 
daughter was regarding him. Now, as once 
before, the gleaming light showed plainly 
the threads of silver in his hair. 

“ Yes, papa is getting real gray,” Panline 
thought again. “ He is grayer than when I 
noticed his head before. I wonder if he 
grieves for mamma still. Poor papa! how 
long he has had to live without her. I wish 
I could do something to make him very 
happy; he has been such a dear papa.” 

And having reached the same conclusion 
as when she first noticed her father’s chang¬ 
ing hair, Pauline all at once said in a little, 
husky voice :— 

“ Papa! ” 

“Yes, dear,” said Mr. Van Werter with¬ 
out glancing up from the paper, which was 
evidently interesting him at the moment. 

“ Papa, I wanted to talk with yon a little 
while.” 

“ Yes, child, in a minute ; ” and Pauline 


THE TALK WITH PAPA 279 

was glad of the minute in which to quiet the 
rapid heating of her heart. 

Mr. Van Werter evidently thought the 
talk was merely to be a request for money 
or some easily settled matter such as Pauline 
often had to present. Perhaps the silence 
occurred to him, for he soon laid down the 
paper and said pleasantly, “ Well, daughter, 
I am all attention.” 

“ I wanted to tell you something,” said 
Pauline, suddenly realizing how difficult her 
father’s reticence on some subjects was mak¬ 
ing it for her to proceed. 

The first thought that flashed through 
Mr. Van Werter’s mind at noticing Pauline’s 
flushed face and hesitating manner was of 
Jack Lorraine. In that case he would have 
preferred being interviewed first by the young 
gentleman himself. The thought may have 
revealed itself in his face, for as his expres¬ 
sion became a little more set, Pauline won¬ 
dered if he suspected what was coming, and 
if so, if it was going to try or displease him. 


280 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“Then I must be brave,” she resolved, 
and the thought nerved her as she said still 
huskily:— 

“ Papa, I want to join the church.” 

Mr. Van Werter’s eyes suddenly fell. 
“ Well, my child,” he said, “ I certainly 
shall not oppose you.” 

“ I have been thinking of such things a 
long time, papa.” 

“ Yes, dear.” 

“ It began, I think, ’way back when I first 
wanted to get up the sale, because I did n’t 
feel quite satisfied to be visiting and living 
just a gay, useless life. And all at once I 
felt as if something was drawing me toward 
better things.” 

“ Well, daughter, I’m glad yon want to 
be true to your best impulses.” 

Mr. Van Werter sat stroking his mustache 
a little quickly, an action natural to him 
when at all moved ; and Pauline, in hopes to 
control the nervousness she felt, got up and 
began walking up and down the floor. 


THE TALK WITH PAPA 


281 


“ I wanted to tell you about it first of all,” 
sbe continued, “ because of course I should 
not take so important a step without your 
knowing all about it, and I did not want you 
to hear of it first from any one else.” 

“ That was perfectly right, my dear.” 

“ I began going to the Young People’s 
meeting very soon after I told you one night 
that I never went, and I thought it was 
beautiful that Rebecca and Isabel, and 
Addie and Susie, all took so much comfort 
and delight in their religion. Now the time 
has come when I feel perfectly sure that I 
love the Saviour and want to profess my love 
before others. So I have made up my mind 
to join the church, but I— O papa ! I do n’t 
want to go alone ; I want you to come too ; 
you ’re such a dear papa ! ” 

Pauline’s voice had been growing shaky 
from the beginning of the last sentences. 
Queer, pitiful little quavers came creeping 
more perceptibly with every word she spoke, 
until she stood before her father and uttered 


28-2 


LINKS OF GOLD 


tlie last plea in a cry that was full of 
tears. 

“ My precious child, come here! ” Mr. 
Van Werter opened wide his arms, and 
Pauline the same instant was gathered close 
to her father’s heart, just as when she was 
a little child. 

“ O papa,” she said, stroking his cheek, 
“ I ’ve wanted so to tell you all about 
it. How like a chain of beautiful gold links 
circumstances have been bringing me right 
to where I could n’t keep * out of Christ ’ 
another minute. And I was in Miss Cur¬ 
lew’s store one night, the very first night 
I ’d been to a prayer-meeting and—may I 
tell you something she said about my mother, 
papa? ” 

“ Yes, Pauline.” 

The voice was so solemn, Pauline began 
with a feeling of caution, but she went softly 
on, telling of the meeting of years ago, when 
Miss Curlew had sat back of her mother at 
a prayer-meeting and had watched the beau- 



“WHY HAVEN’T YOU BEEN A CHRISTIAN, PAPA?” 



























THE TALK WITH PAPA 


283 


tiful white neck grow pink with emotion 
as the minister prayed for those who were 
“ out of Christ.” Suddenly a great drop 
splashed on Pauline’s hand, and the cheek 
she was still stroking became wet with 
tears. 

“ O papa, perhaps you’d rather I had n’t 
told you,” she said, wiping her father’s 
cheek with her dainty little handkerchief. 

“ I ’in very willing always, Pauline, to 
hear anything of your blessed mother. She 
was not only fond of a prayer-meeting but 
was a sincere Christian, if ever there was one. 
It broke my heart when I lost her.” 

There was a pause, then Pauline said, 
“ But, papa, you have n’t really lost her. I 
think it may have been partly my mother’s 
love that has been influencing me all these 
weeks.” 

“ And papa has n’t made it any easier for 
you, has he, my own little dear ? ” 

“ Oh, well, there have been a great many 
things to make me very thoughtful of late,” 


284 LINKS OF GOLD 

Pauline said; and she told him of her ex¬ 
perience at Miss Frobisher’s with the appar¬ 
ently dying man who called on her to pray. 

“ I scarcely knew what to do,” she said, 
“ but Cousin Madeline reminded me that 
the time was short and asked me so naturally 
why I did n’t pray, that the next moment I 
was asking God to save the man, and then 
asked him to save us all. And on the way 
home I told Maidie I had got to be a Chris¬ 
tian. Perhaps I was really one before that, 
but I have had no doubt of it since.” Then 
she asked simply :— 

“ Why have n’t you been a Christian, 
papa ? ” 

“ Probably for a very wrong reason, my 
dear child. I resisted the Saviour, for I was 
a money-getting, money-loving man, when 
your darling mother tried every way in her 
power to induce me to think of such things 
and to sit beside her as a church member. 
Then she died. And God gave me the money 
I had wanted in abundance, but took from 


THE TALK WITH PAPA 


285 


me my richest, dearest treasure. I shrink 
from the confession, but I had the feeling 
that, seeing I had refused to take the step 
your mother so desired to have me take while 
she was with me, I would not turn about 
and follow her wishes after she was gone. 
And not even the sense of remissness I have 
felt regarding my example as a father has 
been strong enough to make me do what I 
refused to, when it would have given your 
mother such joy. How many times I have 
wished she might but know how thankfully 
I would go with her into the church, if only 
the privilege could again be mine ! ” 

“ But, papa,” began Pauline eagerly, “ she 
would know all about it if you became a 
church member now. I know she would ! 
Why, when I am joining God’s people, I 
expect my mother will be very near me. 
And I want you to come with me. I noticed 
one night when 1 first began thinking se¬ 
riously of those things that your hair was 
turning gray and I made up my mind ”— 


286 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Pauline’s voice was growing choked again— 
“ that if I ever did go into the church I 
would beg you to go with me because I must 
have you and—and—you’ve always been 
such a dear papa.” 

Mr. Van Werter took Pauline’s tearful 
face in his hands, kissed her affectionately 
and said in a low voice, “ When you enter 
the church of Christ as a member, my little 
dear, I should n’t wonder if you found papa 
was all ready to go with you.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


“ COME ” 

IT was a touching sight when a few weeks 
later the proud yet humble father, still in 
the prime of life, and his beautiful child, 
stood up together to unite themselves with 
the people of God. 

“ What set Pauline out all at once to take 
such a stand ? ” Jack Lorraine asked Rebecca 
on the way home from the Young People’s 
prayer-meeting on the night when Pauline, 
rather pale but with a firm voice, had an¬ 
nounced her resolve of becoming a profess¬ 
ing Christian. 

“ It is n’t ‘ all at once,’ Jack,” Rebecca 
replied. “ I think Pauline has been veering 
that way for a long time. Her first reach 
after solid things was after she heard Dr. 


288 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Compton’s sermon last winter, in which he 
spoke of ‘ a final reckoning,’ when the 
favored ones in this life would have to render 
a true account, and I think your peril on the 
ice at about that time also set her to think¬ 
ing. It was a feeling of uneasiness about 
her spiritual condition that prompted some 
action on her part, the result of which was 
the sale.” 

“ I can’t help thinking,” began Isabel, 
who with Arthur Fredericks was walking 
just behind Jack and Rebecca, “ how wise 
you were, Rebecca, to advise our falling in 
with almost any plan, rather than have 
Poppy let go of her first serious purpose. 
How beautifully everything has come out! 
I was disappointed,” Isabel went on, “ that 
that brilliant Madeline was after all so little 
impressed with our meetings, and went back 
to her thoughtless life the same as ever. It 
may be a long time before Verona Roads 
has a more animated visitor than she was.” 

“ Ah, well, we can’t tell,” said Rebecca, 


“ COME 


289 

u with just what memories and impressions 
Madeline Hunter returned to Chicago. She 
was by no means a shallow girl, though she 
was one of the most amusing ones I ever 
met.” 

“ So Poppy considered herself one of the 
‘ favored ones ’ ? ” said Jack, going back to 
Pauline. 

“ Everyone is favored,” Rebecca answered, 
u _who hears the gospel preached. Did I tell 
you, Jack, what Miss Frobisher said about 
papa, when Captain Rollins was at her 
house? ” 

“ Not that I remember, ’Becca.” 

“ She said she regretted that my good 
father was not called to the case, as she 
knew he would minister to a man’s soul as 
well as his body. Do n’t forget that, brother 
mine, and after you get through with your 
researches and come to some definite conclu¬ 
sions as to the teachings of the Bible, re¬ 
member about your good father and why 

people desire his presence at critical times.” 
l 9 


290 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Rebecca more than half expected a ban¬ 
tering reply, but to her surprise Jack said 
seriously, “ Oh, it is my intention to begin 
practice as father did, I hope, as a Christian. 
I had an idea I had intimated as much be¬ 
fore. I never could stand by and see an 
utterly indifferent person gliding out of life 
without a word of warning that I could give, 
for little as I may know, I know beyond the 
shadow of a doubt that that is not a safe 
way to enter another world.” 

Rebecca only said, “ I am so glad, Jack ! ” 

“ Of course I always meant to be a pill of 
the right kind,” Jack added sententiously. 

It had not greatly surprised the four 
friends when Pauline came out as she did, 
fearlessly taking a stand for Christ. They 
might not have looked for it quite so soon, 
but it had been their prayer that she might 
become one of them in the church, and they 
looked confidently for the answer in due 
time. 

One beautiful day in sunny June, some- 


“ COME " 


291 

where near the end of the month, Isabel and 
Susie were passing Pauline’s, when she 
appeared at the open window, accosting them 
in the same words as she had once before. 

“ Oh, girls, come into this house, do ! ” 
Only to-day her naturally breezy manner 
was more subdued, and Susie thought, as 
she looked at her, that there were traces of 
recent tears about her eyes. 

“ I’ve had a letter from Cousin Madeline,” 
she said as Isabel and Susie seated them¬ 
selves, “ and all that surprises me about it 
is, that what she writes has come so soon.” 

“ Has she come over to our side, soul and 
body? ” asked Isabel with a smile. 

“ You must read and see,” said Pauline. 
“ Of course the letter is written in her own 
peculiar style, and it wouldn’t be Maidie 
not to say things a little differently from 
what most people would. Here it is,” she 
added, handing the letter to Isabel. “ Sup¬ 
pose you read it aloud ; I should be glad to 
hear it again.” 


292 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Isabel took the letter, which was written 
in a legible, rolling hand. “ The very writ¬ 
ing looks like Madeline,” said Isabel; “ free 
and clear, attractive and no trouble to read, 
yet must be read to be understood.” Then 
she began:— 

My own dear Poppy ,—Did you ever before see such a per¬ 
fectly beautiful June as this ? Because I never did. Did 
you ever see the flowers smile up into your face the way 
they do now ? I never did. Did you ever know the song 
of the robin to be so clear and sweet as this blessed, blessed 
June ? I never did. Was life ever before such a glorious, 
joyous thing to you as it is to-day ? It never was to me. 
Does it seem to you as if you must have become somebody 
else, because of the sublime peace that broods like a white 
dove all about you ? That is the way it seems to me. 

I stood before my mirror this morning and said, “ Oh, yes, 
you ’re the same Madeline Hunter you’ve always been, that 
is, ever since you’ve been anybody, and you have n’t changed 
in looks outside, for all the new life that is exulting within. 
And this is the same old world you’ve lived in for nearly 
nineteen years, for all everything has taken on a new look 
to you. Why, Poppy, I listened with patience to a hand- 
organ outside our window this morning, and you know that 
peculiar kind of instrument was always my especial detesta¬ 
tion. I threw ten cents to the poor Italian grinding it, and 
when he lifted his cap to me his face was beautiful ! ’T was 
the image of God, Poppy dear, that made it beautiful to me, 
and it is the image of God, oh, my cousin, that is transform¬ 
ing, re-creating, and making everything sublime for me to¬ 
day. 

Now you know it ; know the whole story : what it is that 


“ COME ” 


293 

has touched everything with new beauty and brightness, 
even when things were bright for me before. You ’re say¬ 
ing to yourself, “I do verily believe that cousin of mine, 
Madeline Hunter, has become a Christian so soon ! ” Yes, 
so soon, Poppy, dear. And let me tell you why. Do n’t you 
think there’s a little bit of the mule running through human 
nature ? I do. While I was in Verona Roads I did n’t want 
to listen too attentively to a sweet little voice, which, to tell 
the truth, has never ceased to sound in my ears ever since I 
first heard it, a little voice that has said one short word to 
me, and then hushed forever—that is, “ forever,” as relates 
to time. But I do n’t believe but what there’s more depth 
to me than any one might think who perhaps only judged 
from the surface and when I could n’t help bubbling over 
with jollity and the natural pleasure of living. I’m bubbling 
yet. But I’ve had a very sober, serious, searching time 
with your cousin, Madeline Hunter. 

One night after I ’d heard all day that continual little cry, 
“ Come, come ! ” I turned around on my pillow and said a 
bit petulantly, “ Oh, dear sakes! I might as well listen, 
think it all out, and find what that little voice means, and 
where it wants me to ‘ come ’ to.” Then I grew very quiet 
indeed, and let the little voice talk on. I thought of how I 
had held that little motherless baby close to me, much as 
its mother would have done, and was glad of the privilege. 
Then I thought of her giving me the last kiss she was ever 
to give any one in this world, and how soon afterward she 
raised her little drooping eyes to my face, and said, ‘ 1 Come ! ” 

Well, you remember, Poppy, my saying that night how it 
seemed as though Jesus Christ came near and took that little 
child from my arms into his. And as I lay there in the 
quiet night I thought to myself that it was not only the 
voice of the little fading Teena that said “ Come ” just as 
she started for Paradise, but it was also the voice of the 
Saviour that called me. I knew then that I had been trying 
not to hear that voice of loving invitation, the Saviour’s 
voice, and I began to cry. 


294 


LINKS OF GOLD 


Then I thought how foolish it was to lie there crying in¬ 
stead of doing something to make up for being so cold and 
ungrateful, when all the time I was feeling the tightening of 
the links of love all about me. I think perhaps I have really 
loved the dear Master a long time, but had to go to Verona 
Roads to find it out. But I was sincerely grieved that after 
a kind, gentle call had been in my ears for weeks I had re¬ 
fused to listen. Well, I did n’t know how to pray anything 
except the Lord’s prayer, not one bit. But you know it 
does n’t take me long to act, once I make up my mind to a 
thing. And I had decided to pray. So I just said in all 
sincerity, “ My dear Saviour, I’m Madeline Hunter, and 
I’m ashamed and, oh, so sorry, that I have n’t listened to 
your tender voice before this, calling me to ‘ come. ’ But 
here I am, soul and body, and I give nothing by halves, it 
is n’t my way, so please take the whole of me and show me 
what I can do. I won’t resist you any longer, and I ’ll do my 
level best to bring Allie Bumstead, Helen Carroll, and Jessie 
Potter into the fold I want to creep into—way in, so far I 
never shall be at any distance from my Saviour again. 
Amen.” 

Why, Poppy, it was just as simple as could be. Only say¬ 
ing, ‘‘I come,” and there I was a Christian. I couldn’t 
sleep. I got up and read my Bible. Then as I could n’t 
sleep a wink I prayed again. I love dearly to pray. Then I 
sat there in my white flannel loose dress and wrote three notes; 
one to Allie Bumstead, one to Helen Carroll, another to 
Jessie Potter. I was just as calm. After that I went to bed 
and went to sleep. 

In the morning I awoke in the same calm, quiet frame of 
mind, but it was a new day, a new June, a new life. And 
will you believe me ! Every one of those three friends I 
wrote to were not only willing but glad to come and talk 
over my new life with me. They’ve been just like butter¬ 
flies, flitting here and there on pleasure intent, and I never 
mistrusted that any one of them realized that she had a soul. 
Certainly they never recognized any of its wants. But Jessie 


« COME ” 


295 


Potter, the beauty of them all, confessed she had sometimes 
almost longed for something better to think of than her 
opera bonnets and party dresses, and preparations for a whirl 
of gayety all summer long. Should n’t wonder an atom if it 
was just as you said, Poppy. I may be able to lead my as¬ 
sociates to a meeting of prayer. If I can, I shall. 

Now I want to say something else. I’ve written as if life 
was all joy with no lowering clouds. Well, it is to-day. 
But I know as well as any one can tell me, that if I live long 
enough it won’t be always so. Trouble is part of life, and 
I know it. And Christians are often deeply tried and af¬ 
flicted. I know all that. But you know you said that day 
you decided to be a Christian that you were going to be pre¬ 
pared for the discipline of life. So am I. 

But I shall always thank God for one thing, Poppy, just 
as you can too, dear. I came into the kingdom with great 
happiness, and midst all favorable surroundings. To my 
nature this was exceedingly helpful. Affliction or misfor¬ 
tune did not drive me there. I wish all young people could 
be induced to begin a Christian life while things are bright 
around them, before trouble comes, or age comes, or the 
conditions are such as to rob the beautiful experience of 
an external brightness which it would be always pleasant 
to remember. 

I felt a little quiet for a few days, just as you remember I 
felt after little Teena went heavenward, but I think some¬ 
thing in my face must have told the story, for I saw that 
papa, to whom I found it a little hard to tell things, looked 
at me inquiringly two or three times. Finally he said one 
morning, “What is it, dear? Seems to me you ’re looking 
very bright to-day.” And I said “Papa, I think I’m a 
Christian.” And he said in a very happy tone, “Well, 
child, I’m thankful to hear it! Perhaps I should have 
talked with you about such things, but I knew—or thought 
I knew—you’d be a Christian some time. In fact I did n’t 
know but what you were one already. I’m sure you’ve 
seemed good enough to me.” I said, “ No, I’ve never been 


296 


LINKS OF GOLD 


a Christian until now. ’ ’ That may explain why he never 
has said anything to me on the subject. Really, I think 
parents ought to look after their children in such things. 
But papa is rather off-hand, like me, I reckon, and so did n’t 
think. 

Now I ’ve written all about the good news and must stop. 
Perhaps I could have told it all better when we meet next 
month, but, mercy on us ! I could no more have kept it 
to myself all that time than I could have flown on the wings 
of the wind to whisper it into your dear ear. Give a great 
deal of love to our friends Rebecca, Isabel, Addie, and Susie. 
Speak of me to Melly and her mother when you see them, 
also to the Wansteds. I would like to be remembered to 
them and by them all. A very egotistical letter, but this 
once you will overlook it, I know. It could n’t be other¬ 
wise. 

I wish I could attend your next prayer-meeting. How 
happy it would make me to do so ! Ours do not come up to 
yours. They do not seem as homelike, but I mean they 
shall in time. 

Very, very hearty love to dear-Uncle Norman. Write 
soon to your very loving cousin, 

The New Madeline Hunter. 

“ Is n’t that a beautiful letter! ” exclaimed 
Isabel softly. 

“ Yes, more than beautiful,” said Susie. 
“ It seems to me a glorious letter.” 

“ Dr. Compton says,” began Susie thought¬ 
fully, “ that we constantly discredit God’s 
power and might in thinking it must take 
him just so long a time to act.” 


u COME ” 

“ How true that is ! ” said Pauline. “ I 
began praying for Maidie’s change of heart 
as soon as I rejoiced in my own. But I did 
not expect a speedy answer to my prayers. 
It appeared to me as though a certain pro¬ 
cess must be necessary before the thing I 
asked for could come to pass. I suppose 
we try the Lord in not expecting at any 
moment what we ask him for. It never 
occurred to me that the call was already in 
dear Maidie’s ears which was to bring her 
to Christ.” 


CHAPTER XX 


JOINING THE LINKS 

One day early in the fall, Kate the maid 
went to Pauline’s room and handed her Miss 
Frobisher’s card. 

It was a great pleasure to have the re¬ 
served lady call upon a young girl like 
herself, and Pauline went quickly to the li¬ 
brary where Miss Frobisher sat awaiting her. 
After the exchange of a few commonplaces, 
Miss Frobisher inquired if it was the inten¬ 
tion of the young ladies to have another sale 
during the winter or spring. 

“We really have scarcely thought of it 
yet,” Pauline replied, “ but it is quite prob¬ 
able we might. The funds which we real¬ 
ized in the spring are not more than half 


JOINING THE LINKS 


2 99 


expended. But as cold weather comes on 
there will be sure to be plenty of calls to 
which we shall gladly respond as long as 
we can. We all find it delightful to meet 
these calls. Sometimes,” she added, slowly, 
as if half reluctant to speak her mind, 
—“ sometimes,” she repeated, “ we have 
thought of larger benefactions as perhaps a 
possibility of the future, through our efforts. 

“We have thought, in talking among 
ourselves, that some kind of a building is 
needed in Verona Roads that might serve 
as a place for holding light entertainments, 
possibly a mission Sunday-school, and espe¬ 
cially a reading room, where young men 
and young women who are employed through 
the day could have the privilege of reading 
some secular and religious newspapers, 
magazines, and perhaps a few scientific jour¬ 
nals. This has only been suggested, be¬ 
cause it would of course take considerable 
money to start an enterprise of the kind, and 
still more to keep it going. But do you not 


3 °° 


LINKS OF GOLD 


think it would be something in which all 
our townspeople would be interested? ” 

“ Indeed, I do,” said Miss Frobisher with 
an expression of interest in her tones that 
surprised Pauline. “ And I came here to¬ 
day, my dear Miss Van Werter, to make a 
formal, or rather a friendly proposal which 
you and your friends can talk over at your 
pleasure and see what you think of it. But 
first I am willing to say something of the 
enlivening and rejuvenating—I don’t know 
what else to call it—influences that you and 
your friends have been the means of bring¬ 
ing into my retired, and I am afraid un¬ 
wholesome, habit of life. I wish to thank 
you for them. 

“ It dates, of course, from your calling 
and inviting me to attend your sale. That 
invitation, at first, I very nearly decided 
must be declined, as a matter of course. Then 
I reflected that it had been very pleasant— 
it surprised me to think how pleasant—to 
see two young people sitting for a little 


JOINING THE LINKS 


3 QI 


while in my parlor telling me of their bright, 
fresh plan for raising money with which to 
do good. And after thinking it over, I con¬ 
cluded to go one night and see how it would 
appear to be one of a large company, and, 
also, I felt attracted by the thought of see¬ 
ing what your sale was like. 

“ Well, you know how it was/’ Miss Fro¬ 
bisher went on with the pleasantest smile 
Pauline had ever seen on her face. “ After 
going one night I could not make up my 
mind to forego the pleasure of being present 
a second time. I told myself it was childish 
to go twice, ‘ all at once/ but I think now it 
was the wisest thing I could have done. It 
was all far more cheering to me than you 
would think. 

“ Now I’ve been thinking that what was 
so pleasant and helpful in your home might 
be equally pleasant and cheering within my 
own doors. And the more I’ve thought of 
it, the more I’ve felt inclined to think of it, 
until I made up my mind to come and see 


3°2 


LINKS OF GOLD 


you and make a distinct proposal. Wkat 
do you think your friends would say to hav¬ 
ing another sale, the last of the winter, to 
be held at my house for two nights also, 
the proceeds to be devoted to whatever cause 
you may choose ? I think the one hinted 
at would be a most worthy one. And I will 
say to you in confidence what you may re¬ 
peat to your friends, but please let it go no 
further; I will add the same amount of 
money that is made at the sale, so doubling 
the proceeds.” 

“ Why, I think what you propose would 
be delightful! ” said Pauline with enthu¬ 
siasm, “ and I know I can answer for my 
friends, who will think the same as I do. 
How could they help it? Miss Lorraine 
has spoken as though a second sale might 
be held at their house. You may know they 
have a very long parlor and sitting-room ad¬ 
joining at Dr. Lorraine’s, but it would hardly 
be as convenient for Rebecca, because of the 
larger family, as for me, and I doubtless 


JOINING THE LINKS 303 

should have insisted on having it here in 
case we tried the experiment again. We all 
shall thank you, however, for the offer of 
your house, and for the other generous offer 
which will seem like a great incentive, I 
know. It seems to me,” she went on, “ that 
in a place where there are so many profess¬ 
ing Christians as in Verona Roads such a 
building as I have spoken of might easily 
be gotten up by subscription.” 

“ Oh, but, my dear,” Miss Frobisher said 
deliberately but with some emphasis, “ a 
great proportion of our wealthy people are 
not even churchgoers. I Ve often thought 
of it, and say what one may, a pleasant oc¬ 
casion such as you young ladies gave us 
attracts everybody. And if you liked we 
might make a little more of an affair of it by 
having it open during the two afternoons as 
well as evenings, and also selling ice cream. 
There is plenty of room in my great house, 
and I’m not sure but it would be a great 
pleasure to consider an annual affair of the 


LINKS OF GOLD 


30 4 

kind could be expected at tbe same place. 
It is quite time I did more pronounced good 
in tbe world, and frankly, my dear, your way 
of going about such work quite attracts me.’’ 
Then she inquired for Madeline. 

“ We were together over four weeks this 
summer,” Pauline answered, “ and as we 
both ”—she had been determined to say 
something of the kind if she could—“ as we 
both have decided on a new kind of living 
for the future, we had a delightful time talk¬ 
ing over our new hopes and aims.” 

Miss Frobisher only said a little question¬ 
ing “ Ah ? ” instead of making some direct 
inquiry, as Pauline had hoped she would. 

“We were neither of us very serious- 
minded girls,” Pauline went on with a 
smile, “ when we went about our sale, but 
some of the events that followed led us into 
a more sober way of thinking, and resulted 
in our becoming linked with the church and 
its interests. It is pleasant to speak of it, 
because so much that is pleasant has come 


JOINING THE LINKS 305 

into our lives in connection with all this. 
My four companions here in town were all 
church members some time ago.” 

“ Yes, so I thought when I proposed their 
reading to Captain Rollins,” Miss Frobisher 
answered; “ but I thought you and your 
cousin very happy young ladies when I 
first saw you.” 

“ And so we were,” responded Pauline; 
“ but then I had such mistaken views of a 
Christian life, and so had Madeline. It 
sweetens everything, I find.” 

“Well,” said Miss Frobisher with what 
Pauline thought a little heartsick smile, “ if 
religion sweetens a bright life, it might a 
shaded one, perhaps.” 

“ Oh, it must be that it would ! ” said 
Pauline. 

Miss Frobisher’s call was a long one, but 
there was sufficient time before supper for 
Pauline to run over to Rebecca’s, and then 
to Susie’s, and report Miss Frobisher’s call. 
“She wanted us all to go and see her after 

ZQ 


3°6 


LINKS OF GOLD 


we had talked matters over,” Pauline said 
gleefully, “ so let’s go in a bunch some day 
and tell what we think of her plan. Only 
think what possibilities may lie ahead for 
really doing much good ! Some of us must 
see Isabel and Addie very soon.” 

“ Would n’t it be beautiful,” said Susie, 
her eyes shining at the thought, “ if little 
by little we could draw Miss Frobisher into 
the church ? I think she has been a very 
unhappy woman with all her money; but if 
in one way and another she could be led to 
see the beauty and helpfulness of an active 
Christian life, how much it would do for 
her ! If we should make our religion seem 
lovely to her, then if she would drop in to 
the Friday evening meetings occasionally, 
and if Dr. Compton should get in the habit 
of calling once in a while, as he would if we 
gave him a hint that he would be welcome ” 
—Susie paused. 

“ Links ! links ! ” said Pauline, “ that is 
just the way they are forged on.” 


JOINING THE LINKS 307 

11 1 hope Madeline will visit you this 
winter, whatever we do,” said Isabel. 

“ Oh, she is going to ! ” said Pauline. 
“ I can almost see that big trunk being 
packed in anticipation of her coming to us 
again. Maidie was very urgent that I 
should visit her, but she can come here 
much more easily than I can go to Chicago, 
because Uncle Richard travels a great deal 
of the time ; his business requires it; and I 
absolutely cannot leave papa. 

“ Yon can ’t think how confiding papa has 
grown,” she went on. “ He always was 
affectionate, but now he is so caressing and 
makes so much more of a companion of me. 
We talk freely of mamma, always a bar¬ 
rier in our conversation before I talked with 
him about my new resolves. I hated to be 
away from him in the summer, but he and 
Uncle Richard took a vacation and spent a 
fortnight with Maidie and me at the Adi- 
rondacks. We had a gorgeous time. There 
were open-air meetings on Sundays at the 


3°8 


LINKS OF GOLD 


place where we were that were simply 
heavenly, I thought.” 

And now it only remains to say that 
from all present appearances it is quite 
probable that before a great while the de¬ 
lightful suburb of Verona Roads may boast 
a plain but substantial little building, where¬ 
in many a pleasant, profitable hour may be 
passed by any one choosing to visit the 
reading rooms, from which no one will be 
excluded. For should the great rooms at 
Miss Katherine Frobisher’s fine house be 
thrown open, and youth, music, and glanc¬ 
ing lights invite a willing company to come 
and leave behind them of their substance 
what is to benefit ‘ the Roads ’ in so phil¬ 
anthropic a manner, no doubt another great 
success will be scored for our young Chris¬ 
tian friends. 

“ It’s all very well to do good in that way,” 
said Pauline, “ but what I am impatient for 
is to see Miss Frobisher an out-and-out 
Christian. I proved that it is only follow- 


JOINING THE LINKS 309 

ing the Master afar off as long as we mince 
matters by doing good in pleasant, profit¬ 
able ways, but are withholding all the time 
our own selves , which is the offering the Sav¬ 
iour wants.” 

“ Patience, Poppy, patience ! ” said Susie 
Follansbee ; “we must let God work in his 
own way. We will pray for our dear lady 
and believe that all in good time God will 
bring her near to himself.” 

“ That is the way you all did with me,” 
said Pauline smiling. 

At Mrs. Hoostan’s humble dwelling light 
has flown in at the door. Melly is at home 
and doing finely. She cannot jump nor run 
but she can stand firmly and without effort. 
The doctors say that the older she grows 
the stronger she will be. 

Encouraged by the few signs gleaned 
from the Wansteds’ bettered condition, 
Pauline gathered up courage one day and 
called a second time on Colonel Pellington, 
known to be chief owner in a local industry 


3io 


LINKS OF GOLD 


employing several hands. It was uphill 
work talking with Colonel Pellington, Isa¬ 
bel Trenton laughingly declared, because of 
the great height from which he had to look 
down on people of ordinary stature. But 
Pauline persevered in Mr. Hoostan’s behalf, 
and after all the colonel proved himself no 
mean ally in the good work carried on by 
the girls. He gave employment to Mr. 
Hoostan, who promised to keep sober and 
prove himself worthy of his hire. 

“ All is, if he keeps needing encourage¬ 
ment, we must keep encouraging him,” 
Addie Fredricks remarked with hopeful 
logic. 

It was a surprise, even to their sisters, 
when Jack Lorraine and Arthur Fredricks 
entered the church as members in company. 

“ I thought I stated my intentions quite 
plainly one evening,” Jack replied, when 
Rebecca said she was delighted but a little 
surprised. 

One day when Pauline called at William 


JOINING THE LINKS 311 

Wansted’s she was pleased to notice his arm 
had escaped from the customary sling. 

“ It’s going to be slowly bettered, miss,’’ 
said Mrs. Wansted in a low, mysterious 
voice. “ I can’t tell just who ’s paying the 
bills, because I’m forbid. But somebody 
found out how Dr. Lorraine had said that a 
surgeon who was a special ”—she could not 
learn to say specialist—“ could maybe help 
my man if he was to treat him ; and bless 
God, miss, the special has been here, and 
my man is going to be bettered” 

“ Miss ! ” she suddenly asked in a tone of 
rising energy, “ do you think a man must 
be in the church to be a Christian ? ” 

“ I think there must be love for Christ in 
the heart to be a Christian,” Pauline re¬ 
plied, “ and that makes a true follower of the 
Saviour want to enter the church, I believe.” 

“ Well, can’t love for Christ come out in 
good works, miss?” and poor little Mrs. 
Wansted’s brow was drawn up in a look of 
anxiety. 


3 I2 


LINKS OF GOLD 


“ I think it often does, without doubt, 
Mrs. Wansted.” 

“Well, then, I think I know a tall, rich 
man, miss, who must at least be trying to 
be a Christian, for he is that good to poor 
folks that makes them wish him every good 
thing. I only wish I could tell you his 
name, but I can’t, miss, because I’m forbid, 
himself forbid me.” 

One night, after another Tuesday evening 
meeting, the five friends stood talking before 
Mr. Van Werter’s house. 

“ I have no further fears for the twins,” 
said Susie Follansbee. “ I used to say I 
should do the best I could, and leave the 
rest to God. Then I would go on worrying 
as to whether I was doing just right by 
them, and as to how they might after all 
come out. Now I hn still doing my best, 
and really leaving the rest to God and not 
worrying. My little brothers will come out 
all right, I feel sure.” 

“ I can see,” Pauline began, “ that when 


JOINING THE LINKS 313 

I proposed the sale at our house, it was the 
beginning of a desire to serve God ; and now 
it seems as if poor Miss Frobisher was ask¬ 
ing to follow in the same direction. If she 
only knew it, there is a very direct road up 
to the throne of God, simply by the gate of 
prayer.” 

“ Yes, Poppy, that is very true,” said Isabel 
Trenton, “ but do n’t yon think it is often 
best to let a person seem to take their own 
way in making the approach heavenward ? ” 

“ Why, certainly,” said Pauline, “ as I 
said to Susie the other day, that was the 
way yon did with me.” 

“ Oh, we must stand by Miss Frobisher 
by all means,” said Rebecca ; “ and although 
we know how simple direct approach is to 
our Father in heaven, yet if through such 
pleasant avenues as she now proposes she 
is brought into touch with higher things, as 
I think she will be, and her life becomes 
consecrated to the Saviour’s service, why, we 
shall be only too glad to aid in such a charm- 


LINKS OF GOLD 


3*4 

ing way. But we must begin, and pray for 
her individually.” 

“ Yes, and for Colonel Pellington too,” 
said Pauline ; “ he is on the right road also 
without doubt.” 

The rest were not slow in pledging their 
prayers in behalf of each. 

“ Papa says Captain Rollins is a truly 
converted man,” Pauline added, speaking 
softly. “ He saw him one day in a store, 
and he went right up to papa, and began 
telling how much he owed to some good 
young ladies of the Roads.” 

“ How encouraging that is! ” said Susie. 
“ One of these days when our mission build¬ 
ing is up, there will be an abundance of 
practical work for us all to do-” 

“ Yes, and there is always work to be 
found in the vineyard of the Master if only 
there is willingness to do it,” said Rebecca. 

“ Just like links of gold,” Pauline added, 
“link following link, and all beautifully 
joined by an unseen Hand.” 


■ 




































































































































































































































* 


t 



























































































